


Love Me or Hate Me

by shadow_oblivion



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amputation, Blow Jobs, Denial, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Guns, Hand Jobs, Intoxication, Knives, M/M, One Piece Big Bang 2016, Physical violence and roughness, Psychological Trauma, Sarcasm, Smut, Swearing, a whole lot of denial, attempted suicide, but tried to keep IC, con/dub con, mention of drugs, potential OOC, traffic accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 10:47:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 61,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6607807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_oblivion/pseuds/shadow_oblivion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kid tempted fate twice that day.  First he chose to drink and drive, and second, he decided to pick up a hitchhiker.  The second turned out to be more hazardous to Kid’s health, as the stranger seemed to have it in for him.  Not to mention the fact that the guy had somehow managed to get into Kid’s apartment and flat-out refused to leave thereafter.  Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fic that I've written for the One Piece Big Bang event over on Tumblr. 
> 
> My artist partner for the event is collapsedteam (Collapsed Lil). (http://collapsedteam.tumblr.com/post/143125796799/this-is-my-contribution-for-the-opbigbang-ive). I absolutely loved the scenes that were chosen to be drawn, because to me, I felt that it was a perfect example of Kid and Law's relationship throughout the entirety of the fic (the art is very nice to stare at). Also, I wanted to thank Collapsed Lil for putting up with my weird writing process of going from a scrap of an outline to an outline to draft to revision, which took a little longer than intended (thank you as well for the input!).
> 
> That said, I hope that you all enjoy what came out of my last minute decision to change story ideas a few days before the claiming last December (I just love to torment myself, I guess). I certainly had a lot more fun than I ought to have had writing this, despite staying up late many nights fine-tuning everything this month with revisions and wanting to chuck my keyboard out the window a few times.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing from One Piece; just this particular story line for the fanfic that popped in my head and refused to leave me alone.

The club was dark as the music pulsed throughout the building, reverberating from the patrons' chests to the very ceilings. The crowd was equally as loud, if not more so than the music itself at times. Personal space was of no concern to those in the club as both men and women ground up against one another without any hint of shame. The general disregard for hygiene seemed to go hand in hand with the time of day, so by the time it reached into the early morning hours no one seemed to give a damn.

Everyone in the city who frequented the club knew that it was a fact that the earlier on in the evening one arrived at the club, the better it was for those who wished to breathe. But as soon as people began to arrive in the early morning hours, those who ran the club didn't give a shit what people may or may not smell like. That was mainly because those running the club had their hands full with more important things to deal with from midnight and on. One of those important things happened to be making sure that those who were high and those that were drunk were not fucking one another in the dark of the club.

There were standards and then there were health code violations.

In order to keep the cops from descending upon the club night after night, there happened to be a strategically placed hotel directly across the street for the sole purpose of keeping the club clean. And to keep the nightclub cop-free, the patrons were urged to go to the hotel instead of one of the club's bathrooms or one of the booths, should the atmosphere and music put one in the mood to hump and fuck.

The other important matter that the management of the club had to deal with was the fact that their building was also a hotbed for the peddling of illegal drugs. This was mainly because the cops did not often venture this deep into the slums at the outer edge of the city without obvious reason. Like violating health codes. At least, the nightclub wasn't searched very often for there to be any real concern of being caught in the act of buying or selling. And with those drugs came the freely flowing alcohol in the club's very generous sized bar area.

The bar was for the paying patrons to use when the body heat became too much from being in close proximity to others or for when the booze would happen lead to interesting offers once one was back on the dance floor. Or on the rare occasion, there would be someone who came to the club to drink their troubles away in a place more obscure than a bar. It was a place for one to be overlooked within a crowd of distracted and more often than not happily drunk patrons.

One such individual was Eustass Kid.

The red haired young man kept to himself at the edge of the bar. And as if to further deter unwanted company, Kid wore a snarl on his face; as if he would love nothing more than to fuck up someone else's evening if he was given incentive to do so. But for the most part, Kid wanted to be left alone in order to drink himself into a drunken stupor. As to why he had wanted to get himself shit faced, Kid was getting further and further away from the fact with each drink.

It had to do with driving. That much the red head could remember, as well as the panic he'd felt, buzzed as he had already been. Maybe it had been a near miss with another car. Or maybe Kid had just imagined clipping that other car, even if the red head had felt a spark of fear over potentially going into the ditch from the momentum.

Huh.

Maybe Kid had hit something but obviously everything was fine if he made it to the club. And to ensure the memory go away, Kid continued to drink. He had the money and he'd keep going until he could no more.

Another drink and Kid slipped further from reality as the club's cranked up music settled deep in his bones. It seemed to reflect his need to let go. To push everything away and keep it that way.

There were too many people crowding the bar now, so Kid took two drinks with him and went to the relative seclusion of one corner of the club. It was quieter there, sitting in the booth, and he knew that he would be less likely to be disturbed by some other drunk.

And that's when it happened.

Kid had no idea if it had been one minute or ten. Hell, even an hour for all he knew, as both glasses he had in front of him on the table were empty. All Kid knew was that he suddenly wasn't alone, as hands had settled themselves onto either of his shoulders. Kid caught a brief glimpse of gleaming eyes, before the owner of those hands made themselves at home on his lap.

"Mind if I join you?"

The words greatly hinted that the stranger was interested in doing more than just having a drink.

Kid knew it from the way the stranger had straddled his lap and ground lightly against him. The red head had enough booze in him to not be offended at this point in time. In fact, Kid wasted no time in sliding his hands down the stranger's back, his fingers hooking into the back of what felt like jeans. Kid dipped his fingertips down bare skin teasingly as he spoke up in a drunken slur.

"You wanna drink or do you wanna fuck?" Kid didn't see any reason to hide the thought and was rewarded with a barely distinguishable smile from the stranger on his lap.

"Both of those are options? Do you normally offer to fuck strangers?"

"Nah, I don't. But you're already on my lap. Thought I'd ask." Kid mumbled back, leaning forward to mouth a line along the man's shoulder. The arms on the red head's moved to press against his chest to get his attention and to stop him from continuing his actions.

"I believe I'd like a drink before we continue this." The stranger reached around with his other hand and gave Kid's ass a squeeze.

Kid got more drinks. Fuck if he was going to let an opportunity pass him by to get laid. And if the only payment needed was booze, the red head would happily oblige.

Though with the stranger perched on his lap, it made it difficult for Kid to flag someone down or to get up for those drinks.

-x-

The rest of the night was a confusing mess.

Kid was fairly positive that he had left the club with the stranger who had been feeling him up. That he'd gotten to a hotel; probably the one across the street from the club meant for this kind of encounter. What the red haired young man did remember were the stranger's devious words and his wickedly sensuous touch despite Kid being drunk off his ass.

The red head thought that the two of them had had a conversation but hell if he would remember it. If it had happened at all. Kid had to have fucked the stranger, no doubt about that. The red head could tell as much even without the massive hangover that hit him the moment he opened his eyes. A shower would be in order, as well as a futile attempt to clean his clothes of dubious crusted matter. It was a shame that the red head couldn't remember the fun he'd obviously had with the stranger.

Not to mention it was a surprise that someone had allowed Kid to fuck them while drunk. Most people weren't so trusting of him, in or out of the bed with his temper. His little one night stand was braver than most and Kid felt weirdly satisfied.

Though that memory blank he had about what had happened was mainly because Kid felt like shit. His head was ringing from the after effect of being in the noisy, drugged and alcohol ridden club. But Kid's purpose in going there had been fulfilled.

He couldn't remember why he'd gotten smashed in the first place.

Mission accomplished.

Now all Kid had to do was get in good enough shape from his drinking binge in order to get back home. And hope to hell he didn't work that day. Even if he did have to work that day, Kid still wouldn't go, because he didn't want to risk making a mistake.

The red head flopped over onto his side, cringing when his face was hit by the sunlight streaming in through a window. Kid glowered at the light for a moment as if it had somehow made things worse.

Fuck.

How long had he slept?

With a grimace, Kid settled on the bed facing away from the sunlight, his thoughts drifting back to the early morning hours before he'd passed out. A faint tinge of a blush rose on pale cheeks as something else became apparent. It seemed like he had been very shit faced indeed. The red head could have sworn that he'd fucked the stranger, because there was no way he would have bottomed drunk. His ass, however, said otherwise when he'd turned over onto his side. Kid groaned something before he lie inert on the bed with a sigh.

Kid guessed he shouldn't have been surprised. Guy was smart to not let someone like him fuck while drunk. The guy who had fucked him sure had done so enthusiastically. Kid couldn't remember the last time he'd been so sore. Kid hoped it had been worth the fuck, because hell if the red head could remember who he'd been with. Other than the fact that the guy had had mesmerizing eyes and a voice that would have had Kid on his knees and blowing the guy if he hadn't already sat on his lap in the club.

Kid sighed. Sometimes getting drunk was inconvenient because the red head would have loved the chance to fuck his one night stand now that he was mostly sober.

Instead, the red haired young man found himself all alone in the hotel. There was no trace of the man who had gone there with him. It figured; Kid again wouldn't have minded a repeat now that he was aware again, but supposed the guy from the club had decided otherwise. And as the red head cleaned up in that hotel room and retrieved his clothes from where they were thrown all over the place, Kid lamented that it was a shame indeed that he'd probably never see the guy again.

It wasn't like Kid would recognize him anyway, if the stranger ever crossed paths with him again. Kid figured it was best to forget about this one night stand entirely, which would have worked out, had the stranger chosen to forget about the encounter as well.

-x-

2 years later

-x-

A drink at an out of the way bar on the outskirts of the city was the perfect way to end the day. It was such a good idea that Kid decided that several drinks were in order. He'd done a damn good job fixing a junk motorcycle that day, especially when it was supposed to be in good condition to begin with.

The red head had nearly slugged the fucker in the face when he first caught sight of the bike.

That damn idiot client had somehow managed to kill his motorcycle the same day he'd gotten it, and that was the real reason that Kid had been called over. Sure, the red haired mechanic didn't mind doing onsite jobs but he usually liked more warning. Both as to the real state of the vehicle and more than an hours' notice to ensure he actually had the necessary items to fix what was broken. Kid had gone to a party with some friends the night before and was still hungover when he was called late in the morning that day for work.

Not that that mattered. A job was a job and as it had been further from home the red head could charge a little extra. Kid just hadn't realized how fucked up the bike was. It took a better part of the day to get the machine even slightly ready for a fix and by the time the red haired mechanic had finished it was well past nine at night.

But in all that time Kid had managed to not punch the guy, even as he hovered in the background and anxiously asked over and over if the bike was fixable. Kid had not bothered to give that answer; there wasn't any machine he couldn't fix given the right parts and the time to get things back together and working.

At least the red head had gotten paid more then he'd originally anticipated by a very grateful idiot. Kid figured he'd be back the next time the guy wiped out.

But more money meant a stop on the way back for a drink or two. Or so Kid thought, when he realized that the bartender kept giving him drinks that he hadn't paid for. It wasn't until the mechanic got offered a third beer that he hadn't asked for that Kid felt compelled to speak up.

"You going to charge me for somethin' I didn't order?" Kid asked as he took a sip from the mug of beer nonetheless.

"That gentleman over there paid for them." The bartender indicated one corner of the bar with a jerk of a thumb over his shoulder.

Kid turned slightly on the barstool he was seated on in order to get a better look. And then the red head turned around completely to better size up the other man as he took another gulp of beer.

The one who'd bought him the drinks was quite a looker. Slim but with the potential for concealed muscle beneath the clothes he wore based on the way he held himself. Dark black or blue hair was mussed up as if the other man had been wearing a hat. The gleaming eyes, with an odd golden hue to them, were looking at Kid as if contemplating him in return.

Kid assessed the man a moment longer, taking in what appeared to be hospital scrubs beneath a jacket, and wondered whether the man worked or was a patient at a hospital. But at the amused smirk that fleetingly darted across the other man's lips, Kid decided it might be entertaining to rile the guy up. He seemed like a smug asshole at first glance, and Kid loved playing with those kinds of people. Even if Kid knew that he could be an asshole as well, it didn't mean he didn't want to have fun now and again. Plus, the dark haired man might keep buying him drinks and Kid was looking to get buzzed that day.

Kid didn't quite manage to hide the stumble he'd made as he got off the stool to go join the dark haired man at the table in the back. The red haired mechanic stared a moment before he grinned a little and sat down in the booth next to the stranger.

"Any reason you're buying me drinks? 'Cause I don't remember seein' you before." Kid could have sworn he'd seen a flash of disappointment cross the man's face but it was gone in an instant as the man shrugged in return.

"I felt like it." The smirk reappeared as the man's golden eyes gave Kid a once over, and then again, more slowly and appreciatively. "Besides, you're my type, so why can't I buy you a drink?"

Kid blinked at that, drained the beer while mulling it over, and then peered at the dark haired man to see if he was yanking his chain.

The smirk didn't leave.

"And what type would that be?" Kid was used to strangers flirting with him even if it didn't happen often. It was, however, the mechanic's first time to be blatantly raked over with an appreciative look, by another man, and an attractive one, at that.

Not that Kid was overly interested at this point in time. Had he been in the mood for it, sure, something might have happened. But not now. Kid was only at the bar for a few drinks. He had not gone to the bar to get laid, or so he kept telling himself.

Kid tensed up as the dark haired man slid from where he'd been seated up against the wall to press up against the red haired mechanic. The stranger offered him not a beer, but a glass of what appeared to be whiskey. Kid took the offered drink but tilted his head to the side to narrow his eyes at the other man, suspicious of his intentions. The red head didn't think he was giving the other man any ideas, but clearly, in one way or another, he was, and it annoyed him for some reason. Perhaps he should have sat in the seat of the booth opposite of the stranger.

The smirk just deepened as if the other man were amused with Kid's defensiveness.

"You got a name?" Kid asked, trying for conversation as he absently fended off a tattooed hand from giving his left thigh a squeeze. "Cause you're acting like you know me." The red head gulped the whiskey down, because he'd be damned if he passed up free booze.

"Trafalgar Law." The dark haired man said with the briefest of pauses as he watched Kid go back to his beer. Law rested an arm on the table so he could prop his chin up on his hand. "And you are?"

"Thought you knew me or somethin'." Kid snorted, keeping an eye on the other man's nearest hand, as if expecting the guy to try to feel him up again. It wouldn't have bothered the red haired mechanic most nights, but right now, Kid was not in the best of moods.

"Perhaps I'm mistaken." Law said, his golden eyes glittering oddly in the low lights of the bar. "You seemed familiar from across the room." The dark haired man's gaze lifted to stare at Kid's vivid red hair that was held back with a bandana. "That color is very hard to miss in a crowd."

Kid grunted something in agreement before he frowned at Law when the other man laughed softly. Kid's drink was momentarily forgotten, as he didn't particularly like it when people chose to laugh at him. "The fuck is so funny?"

"Nothing." Law said even though it didn't sound like he meant it. The dark haired man took a sip from his own glass before he glanced at Kid out of the corner of his eyes. "And you still haven't given me your name."

"Eustass Kid." The red head grunted in return as he drained the beer and set the mug aside. He discreetly scooted to the edge of the booth even as Law slid closer. "You better not be tryin' to get in my pants. Even drunk I'm not that stupid." Kid wasn't up for getting laid, and especially not by someone with ulterior motives. Law was lying about knowing him and the only explanation for that would be that the dark haired man had to have met him while Kid drunk at some point and the red head didn't remember.

It was as shame, but Kid tried his hardest to avoid associating himself with those he'd met while drunk. More often than not it was an embarrassing meeting for both parties, what with the red haired mechanic remembering little to nothing of the encounter.

"You have a ride home?" Law asked, changing topics completely as he watched Kid pick up another drink, another shot of whiskey, that had been within his reach on the table.

"Nah, I'll be fine." Kid said dismissively, knocking the drink back and setting the empty glass on the table. "Driven buzzed before."

"Not the brightest idea, seeing as you are crossing from buzzed to drunk in a short amount of time." Law commented, and he seemed to be meaning something more than he said. But he didn't elaborate so Kid didn't bother pushing for more information.

Not that the mechanic would have wanted it anyway.

"Seriously, what the fuck do you want?" Kid grumbled as he shifted to the very edge of the booth as Law himself slid closer and closer into his personal space. The red felt a questing hand around the back of his waist. "Quit touching me." It'd been at least two years since Kid had gotten laid, astonishingly enough, and it made him get a bit aggressive when anyone happened to show interest. Mainly because Kid was the one who wanted to make the first move and right now, Law was getting on his nerves.

Instead of vice versa.

Dammit.

Kid's own quest to rile the guy up was backfiring as the red haired mechanic found that he was the one being riled up instead.

"You know, it'd be a shame if you were involved in a traffic accident while driving home." Law said casually, acting as if he didn't just cop a feel of the other man's ass. Or notice Kid's inner turmoil about the whole situation in general.

"The hell?" Kid was desperate for sex all right but not with this touchy-feely jackass that had claimed to know him. Though the thought made Kid wonder why he would ever even be interested in Law in the first place. A few reasons came to mind, but the red head strove to ignore them. He wasn't giving in that easily. "Why would you care about what happens to me anyway?"

"Well, you have a nice tight ass." Law damn near purred as he leaned in close against Kid's left side, his hand searching. "It would be a shame if it weren't around anymore."

"I said to quit-hey!" Kid growled something unintelligible as the dark haired man gave his rear another squeeze out of the blue.

"I bet you have good muscle tone beneath that shirt." Law commented, unconcerned by the way the mechanic's ire was steadily getting close to the breaking point as he leaned up against Kid more comfortably. Law was still feeling Kid's ass up and chose to sneak the hand up the red head's lower back beneath his tank soon after.

"Fucking hell. Stop that." Kid swatted Law's hand away and glared at the other man to warn him off. His efforts were rewarded with a smirk and a disappointed sigh that was clearly overdone just to irritate Kid.

"I'm tryin to drink here." The red haired man said irritably. "I don't know you. So stop that."

"I can see that you don't." Law left some money on the table before he pointedly dragged himself slowly over Kid's lap to get out of the booth, all the while ignoring the irritable growl that issued out of the mechanic. The dark haired man walked away from the booth, his voice clearly disappointed. "That's too bad."

Kid watched Law go with disinterest, wondering what that had been about. But with more money in front of him, Kid made sure to get the good stuff, ready to put the random incident behind him. The red haired mechanic had no idea that he'd set even more things into motion by ignoring Law's none too subtle hints.

It put Kid seeing the other man again a lot sooner than he would have liked.


	2. The Stranger

It was a miracle that Kid could even walk straight enough hours later to get out the door of the bar, let alone make it to his car. Getting into the car was a bit of a challenge because the red haired mechanic had temporarily forgotten that he could unlock it with the press of a button. That put him at spending five minutes cursing up a storm and trying to unlock the door with the key. As soon as Kid succeeded and gotten into his car with its familiar maroon and red upholstery, the red head felt more confident in getting home and sleeping off the buzz of alcohol. He had no work the next day unless a request came in, which in turn gave Kid plenty of time to get over the hangover that was sure to follow this recent drinking binge.

Kid was able to drive his car out of the parking lot of the bar and onto the small gravelly road that led back to the city. The red head could tell that he was drunker than he could remember being while driving. But as there was no one else on the road this early in the morning, there was no need to wor-

Something darted out into the middle of the road from the tree line.

"Fuck." Kid swore as he swerved to avoid hitting the humanoid object in the road. The mechanic slammed on his brakes and skidded off the road and into grass, almost hitting a fucking tree in the process. The red head slumped in his seat after throwing the car into park, breathing hard from the unexpected, idiotic pedestrian that had materialized out of fucking nowhere. Kid's heart was hammering in his chest as he tried to figure out what the fuck just happened, though that was something he would not have to ponder for long.

As Kid's windows were down, the asshole who'd run into the road sidled up to his side of the car, supremely unconcerned with the frazzled state the red head was in.

Trafalgar Law.

The guy Kid had met in the bar.

"You seem to be having some trouble driving." Law drawled, no remorse in his voice whatsoever for nearly causing Kid to wreck his vehicle by standing in the middle of the gravel strewn road. "Are you heading back to the city, by any chance?"

"Yeah. Gotta get home." Kid said automatically before he scowled and glared at Law. Or attempted to, anyway. He ended up glaring at the dark haired man's shoulder. Close enough. "Why?"

"Someone found it...amusing to leave me stranded at that bar." Law sighed as if this was a frequent occurrence. "I work in a few hours' time and can't be late. It was something of a joke played to give me a hard time."

"With an attitude like that I'm not surprised." Kid said with a grin. He'd ended up staring at Law's nose but that was better than staring off into the distance. Infuriatingly enough, it was a nice nose.

What the fuck was wrong with him? Kid felt he must be drunker than he had thought for that to cross his mind.

"Give me a lift to the city?" Law asked, brushing off the insult even if it was clear the comment had rubbed him the wrong way, as his next words were scathing. "Or are you too busy trying to get into that traffic accident?"

"I'm drunk and you want a lift?" Kid asked dubiously, before he bristled and glared at Law's mouth this time. Which was also very pleasant if infuriating to look at with the sarcastic shit that was coming out of it. "And you ran into the middle of the fucking road. I was just fine till ya did that."

"Is that a yes or a no?" Law asked.

"You don't care that 'm drunk?" Kid asked, doubtful once more.

"Ah, yes, that. I can do something about that. Here." Law leaned in through the window and took the keys out of the ignition before the red head could stop him. Law drew away as he spun the key ring around and raised his brow at Kid. "Move over. I'll drive. You almost killed a tree. I'm not taking any chances with you driving. I could end up impaled by a tree if you're startled by an animal racing out in front of your car."

"Shit!" Kid managed to half lunge out of the window to grab Law's wrist. The red haired mechanic marveled at the accuracy despite his drunken ass being in very bad shape. "The fuck are you doing? Like hell I'm letting someone I don't know drive my car."

"You're not even wearing a seat belt." The dark haired man sounded disgruntled. Law was quiet for a moment, as if amazed that Kid was still alive for not doing even the simplest of things, before speaking again. "Are you an idiot?"

"It's my car." Kid stated almost childishly. Unfortunately that seemed to amuse Law, because the other man didn't hand the keys over. Instead, he disappeared from sight briefly before the man opened the passenger's door and slid onto seat as he closed the door after him.

"The fuck are you doing in my car?" Kid grumped as he turned to fix Law with an unfriendly glower.

"I need a lift regardless." Law said as he dangled the keys in front of the mechanic's face. "Even if you're compromised by all the alcohol you have consumed, I suppose I will have to take my chances after all. I really need to get back to the city." Law watched Kid try and fail to grab the keys. After the fourth failed attempt to swipe the keys from his grasp, the dark haired man spoke up in a teasing manner. "Are you sure you do not want me to drive? You seem to be having some trouble."

Kid managed to snatch the keys at that and grinned happily at his accomplishment.

"Would you like my assistance in getting the keys into the ignition?" Law asked dryly.

"Fuck off." Kid growled in return as he jabbed the keys in the general area of the ignition.

It took five minutes to get the car started and in that time Law had eventually taken mercy on Kid and put the keys in the ignition for the red head.

Kid even grudgingly allowed Law to help him get his seat belt secured before the mechanic carefully backed the car onto the gravel road and steered it in the direction of the city.

"Shouldn't be makin' an extra stop...already feel shitty enough..." Kid grumbled as he tried to keep an eye on both Law and the road. "Where you wanna go anyway?"

"The hospital." Law said simply.

"I don't need to go there." Kid scoffed. "Seriously, where ya need to go?"

"I need to go to the hospital because that is where I happen to work." Law's voice took on a teasing yet taunting tone. "You really ought to go there too. Sober up. Make sure that you didn't poison yourself with all of those drinks."

"Asshole." Kid countered, too inebriated to think of a really good counter to what sounded reasonable. The red head went quiet a moment before he spoke again. "What do ya do?"

"I'm a doctor." Law said shortly, as if that was answer enough.

"What kind?" Kid pressed as he reached the city streets and began to swerve between two lanes. The red head stared at the road, briefly fascinated. Huh. When did it turn to pavement? Kid remembered that he'd asked the other man a question, and glanced over at Law, his eyes briefly off the road. "Well?"

"Pay attention to where you are going. Drive in a straight line and I'll tell you." Law said in return, his tone betraying his nervousness over being driven by an intoxicated man.

When Kid almost got hit by another car a few lights later, the red haired mechanic immediately heeded Law's curt words.

"Pull over. I'm driving the rest of the way before you get us both killed."

Kid didn't protest. He was too rattled to argue at almost ending up in the traffic accident Law had told him he could if he insisted on driving. So when Law opened the driver's door and shoved him toward the other seat, Kid went.

Or he tried to.

Kid grunted something at the seat-belt that held him in place, as if grumbling something to it would make it let him go.

It didn't.

The red haired mechanic tensed as Law reached over his lap to free him.

"Move." Law breathed against Kid's neck as he drew back.

The red head awkwardly moved over to the passenger's seat, briefly getting stuck while he struggled to turn around.

"I guess all that muscle must be difficult to move around in any car." Law commented, lightly grasping one of Kid's biceps to give it a light squeeze. "Do you work out?"

Kid managed to right himself in the seat and halfheartedly swiped at Law, who let go of him to avoid the strike. "Fuck off and drive." The red head eyed Law suspiciously when the other man just stared at him and waited. "What?"

"Seat-belt." Law prompted, tapping the belt he had already secured into place.

Kid snarled wordlessly as he reached for the belt and somehow managed to tangle his arm in it instead. The red head closed his eyes and slumped against the seat. This was just not his night.

Slim hands assisted the belt off of Kid's arm and buckled it in place without a word.

Kid may or may not have felt a hand ruffle his hair but when he opened his eyes, Law had his hands on his wheel and was driving. The red head promptly closed his eyes again, feeling exhausted.

He really needed to lay off the liquor next time. It would just be Kid's luck if he woke up and found himself naked or something. Law seemed suspicious and it wasn't out of the question that he might do something weird to Kid, as the dark haired man clearly wanted him. The driving drunk thing seemed to have killed some of the interest, but Kid still didn't know what to make of that imagined hand in his hair.

Memories from two years ago surfaced briefly but before the red head could really focus on them, Kid mercifully ended up passing out.

-x-

Law didn't know what he thought he was doing. This shouldn't have happened. It was much too soon, considering Kid obviously didn't recognize him. But somehow, seeing the red head in that bar had caused Law to try to jog his memory, and that hadn't gone as well as it could have.

The dark haired doctor signaled to change lanes and let out an irritated sigh. Damn that Doflamingo for dumping him in the middle of nowhere and just so happening to have it be exactly where Kid was. But now that Law was driving the car of the very man he wished to get revenge on, he supposed there was no point in delaying things any longer. Law damn well remembered Kid even if the other man didn't recall him in return. It just figured that the red head was one of those people who had blank spots in their memories when they had consumed too much alcohol.

That detail, the not remembering him, was going to be a problem.

A big one.

And that big problem was that the whole reason that Law had raced into the intersection to prevent Kid from getting too far away. Law's whole point of choosing to go to the red head now, while earlier than the dark haired man had intended, had all been based on the assumption that the Kid would, by chance, remember him. Would remember the one night stand they had shared two years previously after meeting in a noisy club early one morning. Since Kid clearly did not remember him, and made no indications of wanting to even try, that made Law's plans much more difficult to implement.

But not entirely impossible.

Law just needed to tweak a few things first in order to make the new situation work to his advantage. Law always did enjoy it when things would work in his favor. The dark haired doctor signaled his intent to turn at a light and as Law made his way down the road to his destination, he started to let ideas pass one by one, until he arrived at the hospital parking lot, forcing him to realize something else besides a need to change his initial plans.

How was he supposed to get an asleep, drunken red haired man into the hospital on his own?

Law pulled into a parking spot and put Kid's car into park. The doctor side glanced to check on the drunken red head, and wasn't at all surprised that the other hadn't come to yet. Kid was still sleeping fitfully in the passenger's seat, which pointed to a lot of dead weight, which in turn meant that the red head was too heavy to maneuver on his own.

The dark haired doctor smirked as he slid out of the car and swiftly headed for the hospital. He had ways to fix that.

A wheelchair, for one.

Law knew, as he steered the wheelchair in the direction of the car he'd parked, that he was going to have a lot fun with the red head once he woke up. As the doctor struggled to shift Kid's slumbering bulk onto the wheelchair, Law felt that it was a shame that he would have to wait to follow through on some of his plans.

But Law was patient. He'd had time to think this through, and setbacks were always a possibility. It would make things more interesting, in any case. He would wait until the time was right, and when it came along, Law would be sure to strike.

Revenge would be his, no matter how long it took.

-x-

Kid woke up with a terrible hangover, and while it wasn't the first time that it had happened to him, it always sucked balls. When the red head tried to get himself in a seated position, he fell right back over with a low groan as his body let him know he'd been an idiot through giving him a painful pounding sensation in his skull.

Fuck.

He felt like shit.

In fact, he felt shitty enough that he knew that he was going to puke his guts out. The sound of someone speaking to him didn't startle Kid as much as he thought it should have but while he struggled to shift himself up and off the bed he was on, he had only one destination in mind. And whoever was with him in the room knew it too, as the unknown person helped the red head out of the bed the rest of the way and over to the bathroom without saying a word about where Kid was trying to go.

The red haired mechanic let out a rather pathetic groan as soon as he was in that bathroom because Kid couldn't remember the last time he'd emptied his stomach like this. It was a shitty feeling as he heaved over the toilet and emptied his guts for what seemed like an eternity. And Kid felt even further shitty when he realized who exactly it was that was helping him.

Law.

The red haired mechanic promptly decided that Law deserved the puke. Fucker had bought him all those drinks after all. Kid felt spiteful and was therefore amused when he half threw up on the dark haired man because he'd moved away from the toilet too soon. It was a bit annoying that the doctor didn't outwardly react and merely directed Kid back toward the toilet. Kid allowed Law to move him, though the red head was not going to say a damn word unless the other man said something first. Kid could pretend that he didn't remember him from the night before. Of course, that whole pretending not to know the other man didn't last for very long.

"Are you all right?" Law rubbed Kid between the shoulder blades soothingly while appearing to decide to taunt him at the same time. "You can't hold your liquor very well, can you? Well, perhaps you can, as most of what you have actually thrown up was the water you've had since you got here."

"Where?" Kid couldn't tell where he was because most bathrooms looked the same to him. Unless...oh shit, he hadn't gone to Law's home, had he?

"The hospital." Law responded. "Are you finished or do you need to bow to the porcelain god some more? Better to get it out and not have to use the pan by the bed."

"I'm fine." Kid had been about to call the dark haired man some names but just groaned instead. His head was killing him. Kid sagged against Law with a heavy sigh. "Bed." The red head mumbled, trying very hard not to move his aching head. "Some pain killer."

"When you can hold water in your stomach I'll give you a pill." Law poked Kid in the side to urge him up to his feet. "But first you need to get back to the bed."

That proved to be difficult because of how much Kid's head hurt that Law had to do most of the steering as the red head stumbled along. Kid must have felt worse than he initially thought he did because the mechanic almost immediately passed out as soon as he was back on the bed.

-x-

Kid was more aware the next time he woke up. He was certainly more level headed now that he was awake and the hangover was more or less gone and his head no longer felt like it was going to split in two. The red haired mechanic glanced to the side and out the window in the room to see that the sky was dark.

Damn.

Kid must have been in worse shape than he initially thought if it was already night again. And as always, the red head swore to himself that he would not drink as he much as he had had in such a short amount of time ever again.

"You're awake. You aren't going to throw up again, are you?"

Kid turned his head to find that Law was in the room with him and the bastard was staring at him from where he was seated on a chair.

How long had he been there, watching him sleep?

"The fuck are you staring at?" Kid growled grumpily. "And where the hell did you take me?" Unless…was he still in the hospital? That was where Kid recalled being last with the so-called doctor that was Law.

"I was just making sure that your body didn't go into shock with all of the alcohol you'd consumed." Law said in reply, unperturbed by the red head's behavior. "And as to where you are, you do recall that I needed a lift to the hospital, correct?"

"I'm perfectly fine right now." Kid said with a shrug, not bothering to answer Law. "So I can go home now that I'm awake."

"Even though you are sober, I want to go with you to make sure you make it home." Law said, as if he offered to escort his patients to their homes often.

Kid wasn't so sure that was the case. It seemed more like Law wanted very much to have an excuse to get out of the hospital. Even if Kid didn't seem to be paying attention to details there was no way the red head could miss the bruise that was on Law's cheek. He'd been too drunk the day before to notice details. But as Law didn't say anything of it, the red haired mechanic said nothing about it either. And Kid, still not feeling his best, did not argue against Law tagging along with him in his car on his way home.

The only reason the red head would allow it was because Kid had no idea where his car was. The dark haired doctor was unlikely to reveal its location to him and let him slip away, just like that.

Kid saw that Law was waiting for an answer, so the red head gave him one. "Fine. Just don't try anything funny."

"Of course not." Law agreed readily enough. He walked toward the door and opened it. "Shall we? I've already taken care of the paperwork, so you can leave at any time."

Ten minutes after Kid followed Law out that door, the red head was considering committing a murder of a certain dark haired doctor who couldn't keep his hands to himself.

Or his lips.

-x-

The drive to his apartment was made in silence for the most part, even if Kid couldn't help but notice that Law was periodically casting looks at him. That wouldn't have been so hard to deal with, until the dark haired man decided to act on something he seemed to have decided on in the course of the drive.

The first hint that Kid got as he turned a corner was Law's hand on his thigh. That was soon followed by the rest of the man's body until Law was almost completely on his lap. Kid didn't even get a chance to demand what the fuck the dark haired man was up to or to crack a joke about the lack of seat belts. Nothing was said, because as soon as Kid slowed the car down, Law's lips were on his and the doctor was kissing him like he was the last man in the entire world.

What the _fuck_?

Law murmured something into the kiss as he shamelessly licked his way into the mechanic's mouth. The dark haired doctor gripped Kid's hair and roved the entirety of the red head's mouth with a turned on groan.

Kid swerved the car to a halt, half on a sidewalk as he hastily put the car into park. Once the potential of crashing his car had been taken care of, Kid turned his attention to Law. But instead of shoving the doctor away from him like he ought to have, Kid arranged the other man on his lap to get a better angle. Kid uttered a low growl against the other man's lips that indicated that they should continue the kiss.

Law wrapped himself closer with a pleased sound.

Kid had a feeling that the doctor was going to be disappointed in a few moments. The red haired mechanic was already inching his right hand between the two seats for something sure to ruin Law's good mood. Kid's hand closed on the handle of a gun and conveniently that was when Law broke the kiss to take a much needed breath of air.

Good.

Kid needed to be able to speak in order to better threaten the son of a bitch. The red head immediately brought the muzzle of the gun between them, tapping Law beneath the chin warningly. The red head was amused at how quickly Law's body tensed and his face went from lusty to wary. Hell, even Law's hands seemed to have picked up on the situation. One was curled against the patterned jean of his thigh, and the other was in the air, as still as the doctor could manage, at the unexpected press of metal to skin.

"Back off." Kid growled as he let the gun rest up against tanned skin more heavily. "And keep your hands where I can see them." It pleased Kid to see Law slowly inch his body back fraction by fraction to the passenger's seat, as if the red head would shoot him regardless of whether he complied with Kid's request or not. The red haired mechanic bared his teeth in a grin and he nearly laughed when that made Law move faster. Kid motioned to the door with the gun "Get outta my fucking car or you'll be leaving here in a body bag."

Law slipped out of the car without a word, even if it seemed like he wished to say something.

Kid wouldn't have cared either way. No matter what Law could have said, it wouldn't have changed the red head's mind that that kiss, while good and actually really, really hot, had not been something that Kid had wished to receive from the other man. The red head kept the gun in hand until the door had shut, and as soon as it had, Kid locked the doors and drove off as he tucked the gun out of sight once more.

He didn't look back.

Not once.

If he had, the mechanic would have been greeted by the strange sight of Law remaining exactly where he'd gotten out of Kid's car.

-x-

Law had been thrilled by that kiss and the fact that Kid had seemed into it until the doctor realized that it had all been a ruse. Law's pleasure by the red head's response to his spur of the moment decision to kiss him had been punctured when that gun had been jammed against his skin. The dark haired doctor waited until he could no longer hear Kid's car, before he turned away with a faint smirk crossing his lips.

It seemed that another change in tactics was called for, and Law knew exactly what he was going to do. He even had a perfect excuse that wasn't quite so far from the truth to begin with.

-x-

When Kid arrived to his apartment he immediately put the whole incident with Law to the back of his mind. Although he did dig out his phone to text his best friend, Killer.

_Had a fucking weird thing happen tonight. Some guy almost got me into an accident. Fucker crawled onto my lap and kissed me._

After briefly thinking about whether or not to send it, the red head did. If nothing else, it would get Killer to wonder what Kid had been up to.

He got no response.

Kid snorted, not surprised.

With nothing else to do, Kid stripped down to his boxers and went to bed. His life would go back to normal the next day. It wasn't like Law was going to be around any longer, after Kid had made a point to not so politely press a gun beneath his chin and threaten bodily harm.

The red head was so very wrong in that aspect, but at the very least he got a good night's sleep.

-x-

When Kid woke up the next morning, he was confused to smell something cooking. Had Killer actually gotten his messages and come over to take pity on his stupidity? Highly unlikely, which meant that he had an intruder in his place.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

With an irate growl, Kid fumbled some sweats on and prowled out of his bedroom, only to find something even more unpleasant.

Trafalgar fucking Law was in his kitchen, comfortable as could be and acting as if he had lived there forever.

"You takin' up my offer to send you away in a body bag?" The red haired mechanic questioned in a low growl.

"I don't think a kiss merits bodily harm." Law said dismissively, not looking up from the stove.

"It fucking does since you nearly made me crash the car by crawling onto my lap to eat my mouth out. Why the hell are you even-" Kid fell abruptly silent at the introduction of a sharp kitchen knife to his throat.

"It is entirely your fault that I am here in the first place to begin with. Something you did caused problems for me, and in turn, it forced me to weigh my options. The one I chose to solve those problems is to live here with you." Law said calmly, even as he angled the sharp blade firmly across the red haired man's throat.

Kid bristled at being threatened by his own knife, but since it was close to cutting into skin, he didn't dare move a muscle. "You are not staying here."

"Yes, I am." The blade lightly tapped Kid's throat, before Law stepped away, taking the knife with him as he turned his back on the other man to tend to the food.

"There's only one bedroom." Kid pointed out, before he immediately scowled. "Not that you're staying or anything." The red head tensed as Law was suddenly in front of him again and gripping his chin and angling it down in order to force him to make eye contact.

"I'll just sleep in your bed with you then." Law said simply, wearing a devilish smirk. "I do hope you'll be nice to me, Eustass."

"Fuck." This couldn't be happening.

"Now that we understand each other, I have a question for you."

"…what?" Kid snapped defensively, still thinking about how best to get the doctor out of his apartment.

"Do you want cheese with your omelet?"

Kid was going to murder this smug fucker in his sleep.

With a pillow.

-x-

Try as Kid might, he was unable to evict Law from his apartment, partially because the doctor was too quick to catch unaware, and secondly, because Law was somehow able to get into his apartment without a key.

Kid had found out this little fact when Law had had to go into work two days later, despite the dark haired man's obvious reluctance to do so. Kid had thought that he was being clever by changing the locks on the door. In case the doctor had been able to somehow get a copy of his key while the red head had been passed out and hungover in the hospital before.

Infuriatingly enough, Law somehow managed to find his way into the apartment anyway, and wore a smug look of satisfaction at outwitting Kid. And the response to this sight was for Kid to throw something at the doctor first, and when that didn't work, the mechanic cornered Law in a corner of the apartment and hoisted him over a shoulder.

Most unfortunately, Kid had to abort tossing Law out the door on his rump, because the dark haired man had wriggled around enough to latch himself around Kid, and refused to let go until the red head moved away from the door to the apartment.

Kid didn't try to touch Law after that, dubious of the other man's intentions toward him, especially with that random kiss in the car from before.

But even more annoying was Law's constant shadowing of him outside the apartment that led into a third day. The constant following was really getting on Kid's nerves, no matter how many times the red head told Law off. It finally got to the point that Kid directly sought out his friend Killer to complain about it.

Kid didn't get as much sympathy to his plight as he thought he should have.


	3. Too Much Temptation

“He won’t leave me alone, and he won’t get the hell out of my apartment.  It’s been three days.  Damn bastard can break in even when I’m not there.” Kid complained as he moodily pushed his food around his plate with a fork.  He’d decided to meet up with Killer at a restaurant for lunch before they both had to get back to work.

“You probably shouldn’t have given him a ride in the first place, if you didn’t even know who he was.”   Killer jabbed his own fork in Kid’s direction.  “And you shouldn’t have been driving in the first place if you were as drunk as you’re describing. You should have given me a call.  We could have left your car and gotten it in the morning. You know better than to drive drunk after what happened.”

Kid pretended to not hear the last little bit. What his friend was hinting at was merely an unpleasant reminder of something the red haired mechanic was still trying to forget.  That the event had occurred two years ago was another reason Kid chose to ignore the comment.

“Just tell him directly to get out of your place and to stay away.”  Killer said with a light sigh, the blond clearly noting that the other man wasn’t going to speak about the drunken driving topic.  So Killer moved on to the more relevant one.  “If you keep letting this man do as he likes, you’ll have a harder time getting him to leave you alone.”

Kid was about to respond when his pocket beeped, indicating he’d received a text message.  Frowning, the red haired mechanic fished the cell phone out of a pocket.  When Kid saw the text and who it was from, he scowled at the screen and the relatively harmless words that were there. 

_Who’s your friend?_

“What is it?”  Killer asked, even though he was getting back to his meal.

“The fucker I’m trying to get to leave me alone.”  Kid snarled irritably as he poked the phone a few times and then held it up to his ear.

“I really don’t think that’s going to help make that man leave you alone if you end up talking to him, Kid.”  Killer pointed out.

“How the hell did you even get my number, you asshole?”  Kid griped, ignoring his friend when Law picked up the call.

_‘Hello to you as well, Mr. Eustass.’_  Law’s voice was light and pleasant.  _‘You didn’t answer my text, you know.’_

“He’s just a friend from work.”  Kid grumped at the phone.  “Now fuck off and leave me alone.”

_‘You know that I can’t do that.’_   Law said in reply, not sounding nearly as pleasant as his voice went to a colder, distant tone. _‘Although it is something that I can’t discuss over the phone.’_

“I doubt that.”  Kid said with a derisive snort.  “It’s not my problem, anyway, so you’d better stay the hell away and not be in my damn apartment when I get home.”

_‘But Mr. Eustass, it_ is _your problem.’_   Law’s voice had become biting and sarcastic before the phone went dead.

“See?”  Kid waved his phone at Killer before he pocketed it.  “Bastard won’t listen to me.”

“Call the cops then.”  Killer suggested as he left some money on the table and rose.  “I need to get back to work, as do you.  That machine part for the motorcycle hasn’t come in yet. I want to go make sure that those teenage punks from before don’t run off with it if it gets to the shop and neither of us are there.”

“Like you weren’t a punk teenager once?”  Kid asked with a laugh. What his friend said before that caught up to the red haired mechanic and Kid glowered at Killer.  “I can handle the guy myself.  Besides, it isn’t like the cops would be fallin’ over themselves to help me.” 

“And why would that be?”  Killer asked as he got out of the booth.

“Never mind.”  Kid said evasively.  Damn, he hadn’t meant to bring that up, as his little run in with the cops a few weeks before was something Kid wasn’t about to share with Killer.   The red head saw a look cross his friend’s face, and stilled when he noticed that Killer was peering at him through his bangs with a scrutinizing gaze.  Kid tensed defensively.  “Really, it’s nothing.  I thought you were gonna go make sure our shit at the shop isn’t gonna be stolen?”

“Are you sure you can handle things if you can’t call the cops?”  Killer ventured after a moment.

“I said I could take care of it.” Kid grumbled irritably.  “You worry too much.”

“Says the person who had to be bailed out that one time when you got drunk underage?”  The comment was said smoothly as Killer started to head for the door.  “And weren’t you the one who wanted ‘space’?  When you got that one bedroom apartment?”

“I was not.”  Kid insisted as he started to rise.  “And you would want more space too if it was a party over at the house every damn day.”

“Heat and Wire don’t party when you’re not around.  You’re the one who wanted to have those parties, so the house is silent as can be when you’re not around.”

Kid bristled; he was so not the only one who liked a good party.  That was a damn lie.  He just wanted to live closer to the shop and not have to drive all the time to get to it like Killer did.  The red head cursed when he saw that Killer was already to the front door of the restaurant, and decided he needed to catch up with his friend.  They did work in the same place, after all.  Besides, the red haired mechanic didn’t fancy walking to the shop after eating.

 “Sir, your bill.”

“Fuck.  Killer, I need some-” Kid paused when he realized that the waiter had already walked off with the money.  Dammit.  It just figured that Killer would have figured out the tip as well.  Now he owed Killer money, and Kid still had an unwanted and infuriatingly sarcastic presence in his apartment.

His day just couldn’t get any worse, could it?

Kid was wrong.

It did.

-x-

Kid returned home later that night after roughing up some punks trying to steal his shit from the shop.  If that didn’t get the bastards to keep the hell away, Kid would get more aggressive despite the fact that Killer told him it wasn’t a good idea.  The red head was already riled up from a good fist fight, so when Kid entered his apartment and found Law still there, it didn’t do anything to improve his mood.  The red haired mechanic’s hands subconsciously clenched as if considering the likelihood of Law withstanding a brief fist fight.  It seemed like the doctor didn’t take too well to being ordered around and to show just how much he didn’t care to follow Kid’s demands, the son of a bitch was cooking something for dinner.

The dark haired doctor spared Kid the briefest of glances before he gave a little nod of acknowledgment and turned back to focus on his cooking.  “Dinner will be done soon.”  Law side stepped Kid’s attempt to seize him and retaliated with a swat to the hand with the ladle he held.  “I’m not leaving; stop trying to get me to.”

“You’re not staying here anymore.  Not for any amount of time.”  Kid tensed when Law got close to him, before the red head immediately became indignant when Law reached out with his free hand to lightly trace his jaw.  The doctor was also wearing a smirk, and that meant that what was about to come out of his mouth Kid wouldn’t like.

“But how ever am I going to get to sleep tonight without someone to keep me warm in bed?”  Law teased as he trailed his fingertips along.

“You won’t be anywhere near me tonight.  You’ll be out the door and gone.”  Kid returned with a sneer as he reached up and swatted Law’s hand away none too gently.  The red head had locked the door to his bedroom the previous two nights, and would continue to do so until he got Law the hell out of his apartment and his life.

Law went back over to the stove to check on the food.  “We can talk after we eat.”

“Like fuck we are-” Kid rounded the corner of the counter to go after Law, only to find himself with a gun beneath his chin, and Law giving him an icy look.  “Shit.”

The red head sure as hell recognized the gun when Law had flashed it in his hand, because it was Kid’s.  It was the mechanic’s own fucking handgun and it was being used against him.

Son of a _bitch._

Kid went quiet when the gun pressed against his skin, but he didn’t lose the glare he had on Law, his head angled down a bit to give it a better effect.  Though the effectiveness of the glare was lost for the most part because of the way the dark haired man held the upper hand at the moment.

“I think that we can be civil about this, can’t we?”  Law gently tapped the muzzle of the gun beneath Kid’s chin as a fleeting smile crossed the doctor’s lips.  “Now, would you be so kind as to set the table?”  Law stepped back, taking the gun with him as he gave the other man a meaningful look.

Kid was tempted to go for the gun but with a silent snarl, he turned away and went to do as asked.  He didn’t want a bullet to the brain, and besides, it was a bit unnerving that Law was so comfortable with a gun.

-x-

As soon as dinner was over with, Kid thought it would be the most opportune time to get Law the hell out of his apartment.  He’d been too aggravated about the whole situation the past two nights to bother doing anything about it, but now, he had had enough.  The whole gun thing was what sent him over the edge.  Most unfortunately, Law had decided to perch on his bed that night and refused to move and even dared to stretch himself out on the bed in the most provocative way imaginable.

Had the red haired man actually been interested, he would have jumped the smug bastard.  But since Law’s sarcasm and earlier threat pissed Kid off, fucking was off the menu.  Kid also happened to be full from dinner and not inclined to do any heavy lifting of another person.  As such, he decided the best course of action was to go get some rest on the couch until he felt that he could effectively boot Law out.

Kid had only meant to rest his eyes and wait for the sound of Law leaving his room, but of course, he dozed off instead.  It wasn’t the smartest thing to do, considering that the dark haired doctor had threatened him with a gun.  Kid wasn’t asleep for long, because he had the sensation of someone dropping onto the couch, and then someone sneaking a kiss on his cheek, followed by a light, playful slap to his chest.

“The couch can’t be all that comfortable.”

Kid was half awake by now as he opened his eyes to better glower at Law. It didn’t do a damn thing because the dark haired doctor merely ran his hands lightly along Kid’s sides. 

“You should go to bed.” 

Since Law was close enough now, Kid was able to actually get his hands on the son of a bitch trying to feel him up.  Kid sneered at Law when the doctor attempted to free his wrists from Kid’s sudden grip, but the red head wouldn’t let him.  Still not fully awake and comprehending what his body was making him feel in that moment, Kid’s sneer deepened and he growled lowly.  “I wonder if all you wanna do in my bed is fuck.  Is that it?”

Law appeared to give up trying to free himself and smiled coyly down at Kid.  “It would be a nice way to end the day.”  The other man’s tone made it clear that he highly doubted that the red head was actually serious about the idea with the way he’d been treating him thus far.

“Actually…”  Kid grinned wolfishly as he forced Law onto the couch on his back and pressed the captured wrists above the doctor’s head.  “That’s a good idea.  I can wear you out and get you the fuck out of my apartment faster.  If you’re all exhausted there won’t be any trouble dumping you outside my door.”

Law opened his mouth as if to give Kid a piece of his mind, but the red head had already settled over his waist and leaned in to close in order to give him a rough kiss.  Law clearly hadn’t expected that, and neither had Kid, because he gave Law a confused look the moment he drew back from the kiss.  Like he hadn’t exactly meant to kiss the other man; just fuck him.

The dark haired doctor merely freed his hands from Kid’s slack ones before he reached up to wrap his arms around the back of Kid’s neck to drag him down.  Law made an insistent sound against Kid’s lips to continue the kiss, as if the whole throwing him out idea was now a moot point.

Kid decided what the hell, getting laid sounded fine to him, and he couldn’t deny that he felt something when he looked at Law.  Other than profound annoyance, that is.  And fucking the son of a bitch would make things easier, or so Kid thought.  It was just another way to show that the red head wasn’t fully awake and thinking things through.  Otherwise he would have left Law breathless on the couch and went to his room to rethink the entire matter.

But it had been some time since Kid had fucked anyone, and with the way Law was already shifting beneath him, the red head couldn’t be bothered to do any more thinking.

-x-

There wasn’t much room on the couch for the impromptu make out that had begun, but Kid really didn’t give a fuck.  He was going to wear Law out so much that there wouldn’t even be a witty quip from the bastard when Kid threw him out of his apartment.

“I was gonna fuck you here, but there’s not enough room for me to pound you into a writhing mess.”  Kid commented as he let go of Law’s wrists to pin the doctor’s shoulders down and started to suck at the side of his neck. 

“That…remains to be seen…”  Law bit out, clearly attempting to keep control over himself.

“I’m gonna fuck _you_.”  Kid clarified, before he blocked any attempt for Law to speak by locking lips with him again and aggressively licking his way into the kiss.  The red head felt Law strain against him, but there wasn’t any hope for the dark haired man to free himself.  Kid allowed one of Law’s hands to grasp at his back as he started making short work of the buttons on the other man’s clothes, impatiently pulling it off one arm and then reluctantly releasing the dark haired doctor’s other shoulder to get the article of clothing off the rest of the way. 

“Don’t rip my clothes.” Was Law’s only comment when he seemed to sense Kid’s desire to tear off the tight tank top he currently wore.

“Wasn’t gonna.  At least not this one.”  Kid pointedly pretended he didn’t indicate he wanted a repeat round in the sack with Law.  “You wear this shit to work?  Like that skeleton one from before that gave people the middle finger?”  Kid indicated the words on the tank that, while small in print, could be read easily based on how close he was to the other man.

_If you can read this, then fuck you._

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”  Law sniped, sounding a little pissed off for some reason or another.

“Nah, I don’t.” The red head lightly tapped Law’s chest with a finger.  “But the saying here kinda sounds like an invitation.”  Kid ignored the doctor’s sour mood as he slipped his hands beneath the hem of the tank and tugged up.  “Though in this case, it saying ‘fuck me’ might be more accurate.” 

Law used one of his newly freed hands to flip Kid off, clearly not about to make an effort to use words.

 “I guess you’re right.”  Kid took the nonverbal insult in stride when it normally would have gotten him more worked up him.  Because he was smart enough to know that Law was trying to find a way to wriggle free and turn the situation into one that was more in his favor, and not Kid’s.  “It doesn’t really matter why you’re wearing that kind of thing.  You’re gonna be naked while I fuck you anyway.” 

“And you’ll remain clothed, I presume.”  There was something off in Law’s voice, a little bit of distraction as if he hadn’t given it thought.

Kid wasn’t sure why he was doing this now, because he’d been ready to physically manhandle Law out the door not ten minutes ago…or however long it had been since dinner.  Not fuck the doctor like it seemed he was going to now.

“Or is this some elaborate ruse to get me naked and then throw me out as such?”  Law sounded resigned as he lay inert on the couch.  As if he had figured things out that Kid hadn’t told him.

“I was gonna do that, but I decided fucking you and then doing that would be better.  Let people see you all fucked out.” Kid was ready for the fist that flashed up at him, and the red head merely pinned it down as he caught the other one.  Shame Law was still wearing his tank, but not for long with the way this conversation was headed.  Kid leered as he kept Law’s wrists pinned down to dissuade him from throwing another punch.  “What, you got a problem with bein’ naked?”

“Out in the hall of your sketchy apartment, I would.”  Law sniped, making the attempt to knee Kid in the crotch.

“It’d be your problem for imposing on me to begin with.”  Kid said, easily using his weight to prevent Law from doing much more than nudging him.  The red haired mechanic took the opportunity to lean over and explore the side of Law’s neck.

“I didn’t think you had a large vocabulary.”  The dark haired doctor seemed to know he couldn’t get away, so for now, insults were the way to go.  “I’m surprised.  Your manner of speaking and acting leave something to be desired within conversations.”

“You looking to get your ass slapped before I fuck it and throw you out?”  Kid growled low against Law’s throat.  “Because I have this thing about people who lack proper manners.”  The red head felt a tremor go through the man beneath him.  Kid could have sworn, as he drew away the tiniest bit to stare down at the other’s face, he saw something of a flare of interest in the other’s golden eyes before it was gone and replaced with cool indifference.

“I suppose it would show what a boorish oaf you are.”  Law said indifferently, before a hint of a smirk graced his features.  “Now, as I do have work later tonight, can you maybe get around to the part where we fuck?”

“I don’t think you’ll be going far when I’m done with you.”  Kid said through clenched teeth.  He tried to remain calm, but Law needling him was pushing him over the edge, and soon there would be no going back.

“I doubt it.  Though if you think I lack manners, then so do you if you just have your fun with me and then leave me hanging.”  Law wriggled out from under the red head’s hold briefly and smirked up at Kid as he none too gently kneed him in the crotch.  “Although if that is the case, then you should know that I am perfectly capable of getting myself off without you.  I don’t need your cock up my ass if you aren’t going to have the decency to get me off as well.” 

That was _it_. 

Kid was going to screw this fucker into his bed and make him howl, and swat that lying ass until Law begged him to stop.  The red head paused at the idea, and that caused Law to knee him again with some kind of impatient hiss.  Kid didn’t waste time; he was getting this asshole out of his clothes and ready to fuck.  Teasing him and making fun of him.  Kid was going to let Law have it, and just to spite him, he was going to remain as clothed as he could. 

The red head got distracted from pulling the tank the rest of the way up at the reveal of Law’s muscles, and decided that while the doctor was lanky and lithe his muscles weren’t so bad either.  And the fucking tattoo across his chest. The mechanic wouldn’t have pegged the other man for it, if he hadn’t already seen the ‘death’ ones on Law’s hands.  “How long did that take?”  Kid asked, tracing his fingertips across Law’s abdomen to his chest as he outlined the large heart shaped tattoo.

The dark haired man wriggled beneath Kid, seeming to struggle with the answer before he went inert and gave the red haired mechanic a bored look of disinterest.

“If this is you fucking me, you’re doing a bad job of it.”  A cool, disparaging smile crossed the doctor’s lips.  “Though are you really going to slap me like some unruly child?  And remained clothed while you’re at it?”

“I was gonna get naked too, but you convinced me otherwise.  Keeping my clothes on will just piss you off.”  Kid said, and noticed a flicker of genuine disappointment in Law’s otherwise indifferent attitude.

“Whatever makes you think that?”  The dark haired doctor asked, making a not quite subtle try to pull his tank back down with one hand.  “And who said you were going to be the one doing the fucking?”

“Oh?”  Kid pinned one of Law’s shoulders down again, halting the doctor’s attempt to remain clothed.  “When I’m done with you, you won’t be saying shit like that.  You’ll want it more by the end and I won’t just give it to you.  You’ll have to beg for it.”  The red head used both his hands to tug the tank top up over Law’s head and off to be tossed over onto the arm of the couch.

Kid made short work of Law’s remaining clothing, although it was partially because the other man was allowing it, even if he made it difficult by shimmying excruciatingly slow out of his jeans.  Kid all but tore the boxer briefs off, and knew in that moment that dirty talk was going to be a must, because damn, the doctor already had a half hard dick and looked quite pissed off that he was in such a state.

“The argument from earlier doesn’t have anything to do with-”

“Like fuck it doesn’t.”  Kid snorted as he gripped Law roughly by the hair to bring him in for another kiss.  The red head grinned against Law’s lips after he took a quick peek down. “And look how hard you get when I pin you down.  You gonna come already?”  And then, remembering what he had said before, Kid briefly struggled with Law on the couch until he had the son of a bitch flipped over onto his stomach.  That made it harder for Law to throw a fist or to try and kick Kid again.

“You are not fucking me here.”  Law said in an almost snarl, struggling to his hands and knees as he swung a fist backward at Kid.

“Nah, I ain’t gonna do it here. I don’t have lube in the living room, unfortunately.”  Kid had already sat back against the couch when the punch was thrown, and he caught the swing and kept it going until he had Law laid out on his lap and without missing a beat slapped that bare ass in front of him.  This was better than having the doctor pinned to the couch.  Kid would rather he have Law on his lap so he could feel just how much the other man was enjoying this despite his protests.

Law let out a disgruntled snarl at another swat, and tried to move away, but Kid held him down with one hand as the red head used his other hand to get in a few more slaps.  Kid was soon forced to grip the base of Law’s dick because the dark haired man would have otherwise gotten off and the mechanic wasn’t going to allow it. 

The dark haired doctor let out a sound in the back of his throat and tried to move Kid’s hand away, failing when he got another slap to the rump.  “Stop that!”

“You done already?  Have your manners improved at all or do I gotta fuck them into you after all?”  Kid asked curiously, turning his head to the side to check out Law’s ass.  Shame he wasn’t interested in swatting it anymore, and was relieved that Law said as much.

“If you don’t stop that I will find a way to stop it.”  Law snapped, struggling upright to better glare Kid dead in the eye.  He didn’t seem to realize that he was scant inches from Kid’s face, ripping into him as he did.  Law did, however, seem to be aware of the red head’s hand idly stroking his dick, and that only appeared to be frustrating him even more.  Not to mention the doctor couldn’t help but move in return against that hand.  “Are you even going to fuck me or just get me off and toss me out?”

“Oh, I’m gonna do it all right.  You just aren’t gonna get to come right away.”  Kid informed the doctor, before he let go of Law’s cock and got up off of the couch, taking the other man with him.

Kid felt that the doctor might have made the attempt to fight back and decided the best way to dissuade Law from that course of action was to lock him into another kiss.  With the red head giving the doctor a demanding and sloppy kiss, Kid was able to distract him the entire way to the bedroom.   It was only when Law was all but tossed onto the bed that he seemed to have his head on straight again, and scrunched up defensively as he watched Kid pad around the room.  And Law appeared to be doing his best to act as if he had not just been given a painful erection.

“That’s cute.  I thought you wanted me to fuck you, you know, ever since you bumped into me at that bar?”  Kid retrieved the lube and some condoms and tossed them on the bed, keeping another item out of sight as he joined Law on the bed.

It was funny as fuck to watch Law try and slide across the bed with any dignity, naked as he was, as soon as the bed dipped from the red head’s weight.  But it let Kid get a good look at him, and the decision not to fuck the doctor in the first place just for the hell of it seemed stupid.  But even though Kid hadn’t gotten laid for some time, he hadn’t been desperate enough to do just anyone yet, but it was a close thing.  If Law hadn’t come on to him first, Kid wondered if they’d have already screwed these past three days. It was obvious that Law wanted him, even if what was going on now wasn’t quite how the doctor had pictured it.

Kid grabbed Law by the arm before he had time to react, and all but dragged the doctor to leave him flat on his back on his lap.  Kid grinned at the dour look Law gave him but supposed eye contact worked out in this case, because he was able to slip the cock ring on without the doctor seeing it.  Kid sure as hell had meant what he said, about not letting Law get off.  At least not right away.

“Charming.”  Law commented drolly as he languidly sat up on Kid’s lap and inspected the cock ring.  “I suppose you have a pair of handcuffs to go with that?”

“I didn’t think I was going to do anything, so no.  I don’t have any.  Yet.”  Kid said with a grin, even though Law currently faced away from him. 

“You really are going to do this clothed?”  Law sounded interested, yet at the same time hesitant, as he slid his hands over Kid’s pants.

Odd, but whatever. 

“What’s it to you?”  Kid was distracted by the naked man on his lap, and his own dick most certainly let him know that the thinking and pondering was over with.  With that in mind, the red head leaned over Law’s left shoulder and nipped the side his neck, which drew forth a gasp.  “Sit up.  Gotta get my pants down a little bit if I’m gonna fuck you.”

“Don’t order me around.”  Law said disdainfully.  A clear refusal to do as asked.  “I would rather go out into the hall naked to be leered at and ridiculed.”

Ordinarily the red head might have taken the doctor up on that, but now that he had Law naked, on his lap, that window of opportunity had long since ended. This was going to be a lot more fun than Kid thought.  It was just a shame that Law was a nuisance or the red head might have considered letting him stick around, at least for a few more romps in the bed.  Law’s tongue was sharp and Kid rather enjoyed dealing with the man’s infuriating words.

“I said sit up.”  Kid said, pinching the dark haired man’s ass for emphasis.

Law rose merely out of surprise, from the sound of the yelp, and Kid hastily undid the zipper of his pants and awkwardly tugged them down, cursing that he hadn’t bothered changing into sweats for the night.  It would have made things a little easier.  But he had forgone boxers that day, so when Law went back down on his lap, he sure as hell knew that Kid was turned on and interested in only one thing now.  A dick pressing up against bare skin was hard to ignore.

Law rose up out of Kid’s lap again of his own volition, haughtiness in his voice.  “You get hard quickly.  Does manhandling me really arouse you so much?”

“Maybe, but you sassing me with that mouth of yours would’ve gotten me hard all on its own. Just sayin’.” Kid reached around to Law’s lap and gave a gentle flick to the tip of the other man’s dick.  “And besides, who was hard to begin with, huh?”

“Are you going to fuck me yet or are you going to continue to tease me?”  Law demanded after Kid had thumbed the tip of his cock again. He didn’t have time to ask anything else as the red haired mechanic urged him up off of his lap and onto the bed face down. Kid held Law down by the base of his neck when the other man made as if to rise, the doctor’s voice not amused in the least bit.  “You are not fucking me on all fours, you animal.”

“Thought you said I was dumb, so why not?”  Kid leaned over and nipped the side of Law’s throat before he whispered in an ear, the red head’s hand resting heavier against the back of Law’s neck.  “I’m gonna fuck you like a bitch, ‘cause you bitch at me all the fucking time about one thing or another.”

“Fuck you.”  Law spat venomously, and it seemed like the dark haired doctor was making as if to get up and leave.

“Where you going?”  Kid would have had a silent victory for the doctor willingly leaving, but he wanted that ass now that he saw it, and held Law down more firmly by the base of his neck with his left hand. “I’m not done with you yet.  Or are you too chicken to take it like this?”  Kid used his free hand to slap Law’s ass, causing the other to jerk as if stung.

There was a long silence before Law’s posture relaxed, and he settled himself on his hands and knees. Kid kept his left hand firmly at the base of Law’s neck, and took a peek at the other’s face, to see if he was up for it.  If the doctor didn’t actually want to fuck, then he should just say so.  The red head wasn’t interested in his partner for the evening to be timid and do as asked all the time.

He needn’t have worried, because _damn_. Kid felt himself get harder over the fact that Law looked to be pissed off at him while at the same time affronted that Kid would think he couldn’t handle it.   And then there was that goddamned smirk and Law raised his ass slightly in the air, his eyes meeting Kid’s in challenge.

Kid grinned at that.

Challenge accepted.

Kid was going to try and fuck Law so much he’d forget his own name.  “Hope you like your ass sore, ‘cause it will be when I’m done with you.”

“I highly doubt it.”  Was Law’s scathing response.  “But you’re welcome to try, _Mr._ Eustass.”

Well then, there was no point in delaying things.

Kid let go of Law’s neck to let the other man settled on the bed, and gripped the lube that was nearby.  The red haired mechanic didn’t even bother to try and treat Law nicely at the point. Kid had a feeling that Law might like it a little rough, so he settled on the bed next to Law and pressed down lightly with two lube covered fingers to let Law know it.

Law just raised his ass higher and thrust back against Kid’s fingers with an impatient huff. 

Kid grinned and moved behind Law so that he could have a better angle, and wasted no time in fucking his two fingers into the doctor’s ass after that little display.  And the fact that Law fucking moaned was a good indication that he liked what Kid was doing.  The red hard explored that ass he was going to fuck, and pressed down repeatedly in one place in particular to get Law writhing and grasping the sheets beneath him. 

The dark haired doctor hissed out several expletives out in a row and the mechanic could have sworn that some of them were in a foreign language.

Kid drew his fingers back to get more lube, and after a few minutes of thorough exploration, he got Law to swear as well as moan at him.

“Must you drag things out?”  Law groaned something before he let out a slow breath.  “Do you need me to…draw you a map…of where your…fingers should go?”

Did this guy ever shut up or stop being so damn annoying?

Kid decided to add a third lubed up finger, to see if that would get Law to change his tune.

The dark haired doctor buried his face into the sheets and breathed something out in rapid succession. 

If Kid didn’t know better, he could have sworn it was an insult of some kind.  But with Law moaning like he couldn’t stop, the red head wasn’t entirely sure. But Kid did figure that he’d spent enough time fingering Law, as by now the doctor was attempting to fuck himself by pressing backward against Kid’s fingers.  The red head felt he might not last with the sounds issuing from Law, and hastily removed his fingers. When Kid located a condom, he quickly shoved Law around to his liking before he ran a lube covered hand over his sheathed dick.  “Gonna fuck you now.”

“Get on with it then.”  Law said in return, already breathing heavily. 

Kid pressed in at the sarcastic tone, and as soon as he was partway in, started to thrust enthusiastically as he grasped Law’s hips in order to keep him in place.  Law was more vocal than Kid would have thought, what with the way that the other man was clinging to the sheets and moaning like he couldn’t help himself, even going so far as to try and spread his legs farther apart.  He was still an asshole, though, as Law was every bit a dirty talker as Kid was trying to be, when the two of them could manage to use words.

“Like it?”  Kid asked at one point, pausing between thrusts.  “Your ass seems to like it, with that way it’s clenching around me like this.”

“Feels like…you’re not fucking…me hard enough.” Law said contemptuously.  He seemed to not care as much now that he was being fucked on all fours, and appeared to be more interested in doing all he could to irritate Kid.

Kid really made Law howl after that, going rougher and harder than before.  But he could tell that Law liked it, because he was angling his ass back in the red head’s direction, as if asking for more.

“Fuck.  That’s hot.”  Kid had commented of the doctor trying and failing to remove to cock ring on his own.  Kid paused, buried to the hilt as he leaned over Law’s back to pin his hands down with his own “But I said you weren’t getting off that easily.”

“Touch it.”  Law breathed raggedly between the resumed thrusts.  “Bastard.”

“Oh, so I’m a bastard now instead of an oaf, huh?”  Kid grinned against Law’s shoulder as he gave a single, sharp thrust.  “You really want it?”  The red head brought one of Law’s hands back to the cock ring.  “Then take it off and do it yourself.”  With that, Kid let his hands go back to the other man’s hips as he resumed fucking Law, amused when the doctor cussed him out while trying to multitask.

“Fuck…you…”  Law rasped as he finally got the cock ring off.  But getting a hand wrapped around his dick was another task that the doctor’s fucked out brain seemed to have trouble figuring out.

Kid let him struggle, before the red head gave one final, hard thrust and came.  And to make himself more of a nuisance, Kid remained on top of Law even after he had pulled out and removed the condom to be disposed of.

Law ended up curled on his side at this point, and was doing a terrible job of getting himself off, as uncoordinated as his hands were at present.  The doctor ended up leaving himself in the uncomfortable state and half glared up at Kid as if it was all his fault.

Technically, it was.

Kid didn’t care because it amused the hell out of him. “What?”

Law looked away.

“Yeah, right, like you’re actually offended that I didn’t get you off.”  Kid let himself go almost boneless over the doctor, and considering he outweighed Law, it wasn’t pleasant for the slender man.

“Get off of me, you brute.”  Law snapped irritably.  All calm seemed to be gone now that he was lying in bed with an erection and unable to do anything about it.

Kid snuggled close just to piss him off.  “If you ask me nicely, I’ll get you off.”

Law flipped Kid off again.

The red haired mechanic leaned over and nipped the finger, before seizing the limb with a hand and sucking the finger into his mouth. Kid smirked around the finger when it caused the dark haired doctor to let out a muffled moan.  Kid grinned as he released Law’s finger, and used the doctor’s mostly limp arm to drag Law up against him to kiss him.  The red head decided to make the kiss slow and indulgent, because Kid figure it would drive the other man nuts because he wasn’t touching his dick.

The doctor groaned something in response but allowed the kiss nonetheless.

When Kid drew away this time, Law moved more quickly than the red head would have given him credit for.  The doctor grabbed one of Kid’s arms tightly. 

“Get me off now or I’ll break your arm.”  Law’s eyes flashed dangerously as he issued the threat.

Oh, but Law had some spark left in him and it made Kid grin again. Definitely more fun than he’d have expected this to be.

“If you can actually break it, how would I get you off?”  Kid asked offhandedly, until Law made a movement with one hand and put strain on his arm as the doctor used his free hand to bend the red head’s arm just so.  Kid blinked, but it was too late to get out of Law’s grip, and he let out a pained snarl. “Dammit.”

Law finally smirked, looking pleased with himself.  “Now that I have your attention…”  The dark haired man pressed up against Kid, making his erection obvious.  “Deal with this now.”  Giving one final not so painful tug, the doctor let go of Kid’s arm.

Funnily enough, Kid decided to go further and gave Law an impromptu blow job, partially because it had turned him on that Law had threatened him with violence again.  If he could have gotten hard so soon after coming, the red head would have fucked Law again.  Since Kid couldn’t, he merely focused on driving the doctor up the wall, even going so far as to slip two fingers up Law’s already sore ass to fuck him with until the son of a bitch passed out from over stimulation.

Kid stared down at Law’s rapidly rising and falling chest, and belatedly realized that he was too worn out himself to bother getting the doctor up and out of his apartment.  The most he was willing to do at present was shove Law over to one side of the bed.

After getting out of bed himself to take care of one small task, Kid settled back onto the other side of the mattress with a slow sigh. Just as he was about to drift off, the red haired mechanic swore as what he’d just done hit him.

“Shit.”

What the hell was he thinking, going so far as to fuck Law?

How was Kid supposed to get rid of the other man now?


	4. Unwanted House Guest

Law woke up on the couch in Kid's living room with a very sore ass. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing considering that last night hadn't exactly gone according to plan.

The doctor let out a low sigh as he stretched out on the couch to find a better position to lie in. Law had hoped, through the course of him being in the red head's apartment, that Kid might have begun to actually take an interest in him. It was a rather stupid hope, seeing as the red head really had just seemed to have the intention to fuck him. And going along with that, Kid would have used exhausting him to toss him out the door when Law would have literally been unable to stop the red haired man from doing so. But despite Kid's apparent, yet well-founded grudge against him, Law didn't think that Kid would have actually left him out in the hallway to fend for himself as exhausted as he would have been, as well as naked and covered in sweat and other body fluids…

Law was unable to prevent himself from letting out a pleasured sigh at the thought of how yesterday evening had turned out. For all of Kid's gruffness toward him, and his constant insistence that Law get out of his place for the past three days, the red head had certainly made quick work of the doctor's clothes when Law woke him up on the couch. Law's eyes closed briefly as he replayed yesterday night's events, and smirked to himself. He hadn't expected Kid to take him literally when he had asked the other man if he would remain clothed. Even so, the dark haired doctor couldn't help but find the memory of Kid fucking him with most of his clothes on a lot hotter than Law would have ever admitted aloud.

And while that blow job he'd received had been unexpected, it was not unwelcome, especially as it had been good enough to send the doctor off into unconsciousness like that. Before Law could decide what to do about that particular detail, that he had enjoyed himself more than he'd planned to, the dark haired man's phone started to ring. It was irritating, since it was early in the morning. Not that Law had slept very much, but it would just figure that his phone would wake Kid up, and the doctor wasn't ready to deal with him at present. Law flopped onto his stomach to reach an arm down to the floor, not feeling overly concerned over the fact that he was still naked. His only problem at present was that his clothes were on the floor and that made it difficult to figure out where he'd stowed his cell phone.

When the phone began rang again, it seemed louder to Law, somehow, but he knew that was because he feared it might wake Kid up. And if the red head found him now, Law wouldn't be surprised if the other man kept to his word, hoisted him over a shoulder, and dropped him out into the hall. Law rooted around in his jacket as a smirk crossed his features. He wouldn't mind if Kid carried him around like that, though preferably it would be accompanied by a hand over his ass or thighs.

The phone's incessant ringing finally made Law get onto the floor on his hands and knees to better root through his pockets. The movement made him grimace, but at the very least he'd had the forethought to go clean himself up in the shower about an hour after he'd woken up on Kid's bed. And after that very nice, cleansing shower, Law had hobbled over to the couch to sleep on for the rest of the night as a precaution. The doctor's hand finally wrapped around his cell phone but instead of answering it, his thoughts were elsewhere.

Law cast a glance at the closed bedroom door as he gingerly settled back onto the couch. The dark haired doctor had no idea if Kid would have done something like try to smother him had he gone back in there. The red head had certainly subconsciously done so by deciding to fall asleep half on Law, instead of staying on his side of the bed. So the doctor decided, once he'd gotten Kid's heavy bulk off of him, that the couch would be safer. The only thing the doctor bemoaned the loss of was the red head's body heat, which most certainly would have sent Law back to sleep had he not been in danger of suffocation.

The doctor's gaze fell onto the phone. It wouldn't do for the red head to figure out a way to take care of him so easily. Law still had plans for when Kid actually started to like him and take an interest in him, instead of tossing him to the door as soon as the red head saw fit. The dark haired doctor had already had to change his plans once; Law wasn't going to do so again if he could keep things as they were and try to follow through with what he had decided he would do when he stood outside the building Kid lived in days ago.

There was no turning back now. Not without some results that involved Law being able to go through with his revenge.

Law grumbled something irately under his breath as the phone went off again in his hand. He answered it, knowing full well who it would be at this time of the day. And the doctor was right with that laughing, rather amused voice that greeted him on the other end of the line.

_'Fufufu. Good morning, Law.'_

Suddenly, being partially smothered by an irritable red head didn't seem so bad when reality chose to hit Law in the face.

-x-

Kid woke up and after he remembered what the fuck he'd gone and done, the red haired mechanic was ready to pitch Law out the front door of his apartment. Clothes were optional unless the doctor was able to dress himself before Kid could get to him. With that cheerful thought in mind, Kid prowled out of his bedroom dressed in nothing but a pair of boxers.

And surprise, surprise, the smug fucker was still in his apartment, comfortable as you please on his damn couch.

Naked.

Asshole.

Kid averted his eyes lest he be distracted from getting the other man out of his apartment. The red head tried very hard not to think about how easy it would be to go for a round two, especially with all of the lube he had left. Kid, however, was now in his right mind, and as he was no longer sated from the aftermath of sex, now was the time to deal with his unwanted guest.

Law made it difficult for the red haired mechanic to focus on the matter at hand, because the dark haired doctor had decided to sprawl out on the couch in a 'check me out' kind of way. Or maybe it was a 'tap this if you can, bitch', based off of the smirk on the man's face. Kid wasn't sure if one was better than the other, or if he should be offended instead.

"What the hell kind of game are you playing?" The red head was still highly annoyed over the fact that Law would not leave him alone and get the hell out of an apartment he'd basically broken in to. "Why are you tryin' to stay here? Why not go somewhere else?"

"I need a place to hide from someone. Or rather, a place I can stay where I cannot be followed or observed." Law tapped his cheek lightly with a fingertip, where there was a faint bruise, and the doctor's voice became flat. "This had been a warning, so that was why I made up my mind to follow you here and stay with you."

"Why me?" Kid whined almost petulantly. The red head wasn't really even wholly into the conversation anyway, as he was more concerned with how easily he could manhandle the dark haired doctor out the door.

"It's your fault that I have such problems in the first place." Law said after a brief moment of silence, his right hand drifting down his stomach and making its way to somewhere entirely inappropriate to the present convention. "So you should take some responsibility for it."

Like fuck Kid would do that.

"I doubt that it was my fault. You probably get yourself into trouble with that rude mouth of yours." Kid said in a similar flat tone as Law, though it was mainly because he was avoiding joining the other man on the couch to help the doctor along with the hand job he'd started. "And who the hell would be after your scrawny ass anyway? Or watching you or whatever the fuck is going on?" Not that Kid actually thought Law was scrawny; not after the red haired mechanic had seen him and was still seeing the dark haired doctor naked.

Law's next words prevented the red head from dwelling too much over the fact of just how much he'd actually enjoyed having Law naked and writhing underneath him. What with that nice curve to his spine when he had…

"Doflamingo."

"Donquixote fucking Doflamingo?" Kid swore loudly and the way he'd moved must have been seen as threatening because Law suddenly let go of his dick that he'd been idly stroking in order to make himself as small as he could against the couch. "Why the fuck would you say something like that? You gotta be joking about that. No way that's true."

"You asked." The dark haired doctor pointed out, even as he pressed more securely against the couch, as if wary about what Kid might choose to do. "And as much as I'd like to inform you that it was a joke, it isn't."

Kid knew that he had asked for the information but that didn't make it any better when he heard the name. Already his mind was buzzing with possible reasons for why Law would be involved with that crazy bastard in the first place. From what Kid could remember, Doflamingo was a businessman, though he was also rumored to be some kind of black market dealer, and the most sought after one, at that. Kid didn't want any part of that if it was true; he'd heard far too many rumors about people conveniently disappearing if they so much as sneezed in the direction of Doflamingo and his family.

Fuck.

What the hell had he gotten himself in to?

Kid knew he should have thrown Law out sooner. The man was far too much trouble for his own good. Was that why Law was loitering in his apartment, refusing to leave? Was it because Doflamingo was after him, or because the man was looking for him? There was a difference between those two things, and Kid wasn't sure which would be more appealing. Law having some relation with a black market dealer didn't seem very plausible, but Law having an 'eye' kept on him could be for any number of reasons.

The red head swore one more time before he rounded on Law with a demanding growl. "And again, how the fuck is any of that my fault?"

"It's because I was watching your sorry, drunken ass that someone important to me died in my family without my knowledge." Law stated archly. "I was supposed to have gone to help, but by the time I found out what had happened, it was too late." The doctor fixed Kid with an unfriendly look. "I had been too busy tending to you to realize that I was needed."

"You didn't have to watch me that night." Kid said sullenly in return. "I was pretty out of it until I started puking." The red head was a little weirded out because it seemed to him that Law was acting as if what had happened had been more than a few days or so ago.

"I am under close observation at the hospital as of late, so I prefer to be elsewhere. And Doflamingo wouldn't care where I went after I finished my shifts at the hospital, so long as I have my phone with me. After I wasn't where I was really needed that one night, I've had nothing but grief from that man. He's always trying to make sure that I will always be readily available to go help the family should the need arise." Law saw the look on the red head's face and answered the unasked question. "I will not go home." The doctor dropped eye contact briefly. "Too many painful memories linger there."

"I don't give a shit. You have got to have your own place, don't you?" Kid growled as he stepped forward. "So get the hell outta mine."

"I can't. You were too rough to me last night." Law commented dryly. "I doubt that I will be able to make it very far. I barely made it to your couch as it is."

"Yeah right." Kid snorted as he took another step. "It musta been real hard to use my shower _and_ get to my couch."

When Kid's hand fell on a shoulder, the doctor added. "While I don't mind you touching me, do you think that you could refrain from jostling me too much right now?" Law looked up at Kid with a smirk, either not noticing or not caring that the red head gripped him tight. "And by the way, I'm hungry." The doctor raised his brow at the gnashing of teeth that came from the other man, and, with a teasing smile, added. "Get me something to eat?"

Kid just glared; he wasn't sure what to say to that, but he certainly knew what to do after the doctor opened his mouth again.

"And once you make breakfast, would you mind terribly feeding it to me mouth to mouth?" Law dared to ask with a devilish smirk, breaking the tense atmosphere. "I find myself rather limp at present, so holding utensils would be a bit of a challenge."

Kid hesitated for a fraction of a second before he crawled onto the couch and used his weight to keep Law pinned on his back to the couch to prevent the other man from making an escape. Then, not seeming to care if he ended up with a body, Kid seized a pillow and tried to smother Law. He was fucking done with this smug son of a bitch. Kid's efforts to suffocate the doctor, however, amounted to nothing because there was suddenly the muzzle of a gun pressed painfully into his side.

"Motherfucker." Kid swore as he went still, before reluctantly removing the pillow when he was nudged by the gun. The red head could tell that Law was out of breath and for some stupid reason the red head had to inwardly applaud the bastard for hiding the gun within reach. Even if there was one small matter that the red head kept to himself for the moment.

"I will have to ask that you refrain from trying to kill me." Law said pleasantly, even if his expression was nothing of the sort. "If you let me stay I can do some of the cooking." Law added, acting as if he didn't have a gun jammed against Kids ribs.

The red haired mechanic frowned; he could cook with or without the doctor's help.

Law apparently wasn't sure if the frown was aimed at him or the gun because he spoke up again. "I can pay you rent money."

Kid suddenly seized Law's hand that held the gun and wrestled it free from the doctor's grasp with brief protest from Law himself. The red head felt the other man go still but ignored him as he inspected the gun before snorting in amusement. "If the gun's empty it doesn't make very good leverage, you know. Didn't you notice that it was lighter than before?"

"It wasn't loaded?" The question sounded genuine as well as disgruntled.

"You think I'd leave my gun loaded when you threatened me with it once already?" Kid asked as he tucked the weapon into the back of his boxers. "I made sure to take the bullets out when you were asleep." The red head was glad that he had taken the precaution, as Law had clearly absconded with it soon after. Kid peered down at Law, and saw that the doctor was pressed defensively against the couch. "Why don't you go bother someone else?" The red head held Law down by his shoulders when the doctor attempted to discreetly shift away.

"To make things believable to Doflamingo, I'd need to stay with a lover." Law said with a light sigh as if he found Kid very taxing. "He did say he didn't care if that was the case, but to stay with a stranger? Not so much. He'd prefer I stay in my own apartment."

"Hell _no_." The red head considered the pillow on the ground before he gave Law a meaningful look. "Go find someone else to stay with to play fuck buddies with."

"We don't have to have sex, if that's what is bothering you. I certainly wouldn't mind if it happened again, though, if last night was anything to go by." Law flashed a smirk the red head's way. "I'd rather not be on all fours again as that was rather uncomfortable."

Kid glared.

"Just let me crash here with you for a little while. I can cook when you don't have the time. I'll even stay out of your way if you don't really want to speak to me." Law almost had a pleading look in his eyes and it just seemed out of place. "Let me stay here until things blow over and I'm not under constant watch."

What the hell.

It wasn't like Law was trying to kill him, though the whole gun to his chin the evening before could count. Kid, on the other hand, had attempted to do the doctor in a few times, or just threatened to do so. For the most part, it appeared as if Law was just there to annoy and flirt with him. Kid heaved an exaggerated sigh and got up off of the couch to stare down at Law. The fact that the dark haired doctor had left the safety on the gun in place was another indication that Law didn't actually want to kill him, but then again, maybe the dark haired man wasn't as good or familiar with a gun as Kid had initially thought he was.

The doctor said nothing. Merely stared and waited for the red head to respond.

At least that made it easier to think.

Sort of.

The whole Law still being naked was a bit of a distraction, but one that Kid could handle.

"You'd better pay up then if you're gonna crash here and annoy the shit out of me." Kid rumbled eventually. "Or I could turn you out on your bare ass now."

"I have the money." Law offered easily enough, though he did look rather disgruntled when he said it.

Kid liked the offended tone; it fit the dark haired doctor better than the 'poor me' act.

Asshole.

"You can stay for a month, including the past three days." Kid said reluctantly. "Just stay out of my way. Got it?" The red head glowered at Law as the dark haired doctor flashed a pleased smirk up at him.

And stood up.

Kid watched Law limp to the kitchen, and the red head couldn't help but break one of the very things he wanted. Engaging in conversation and otherwise being around Law. "I though you said your ass hurt too much to move."

"My mistake. You weren't nearly as rough as I thought." Law said, his smirk more obvious. The dark haired doctor turned away and leaned over to peer into a cupboard, presumably showing his bare ass off on purpose. "I thought you weren't speaking to me?"

"Asshole." Kid grumbled before he disappeared into his bedroom, missing the fleeting smile that crossed Law's lips that was anything but mocking. It wouldn't have mattered if the red head had seen the expression or not, however, because the doctor's next words made Kid reconsider the decision he'd just made.

"Your pantry and refrigerator are in dire need of a grocery trip."

"Fuck off." Was Kid's brilliant response.

-x-

Kid decided that living with Law wasn't as bad as he had anticipated it might be, after the first three days of the dark haired doctor being in his apartment uninvited. And it wasn't bad because Law more or less avoided Kid as the other man had said he would. The only time Law engaged Kid was to ask what he wanted to eat when the doctor decided he'd cook. That conversation inevitably escalated to insults between the two men before Kid would bristle and stalk off to his room.

It wasn't a bad set up, all things considered. It was just a shame that Kid had to refrain from fucking Law again. He didn't want the doctor to get the idea that he liked him or something.

Kid didn't.

Besides, the only thing he and Law ever tended to do was bitch at one another or otherwise get on each other's nerves. But other than that, Kid barely noticed Law was around. During the daytime hours, anyway. Night time was a completely different story. It was during those later hours at night that Law would throw away the pretense of remaining out of Kid's presence and would instead make himself as comfortable as could be.

In Kid's room, more often than not, and usually laying on his bed in varying stages of undress. And then the flirting would begin, and Kid would either start an argument or get straight to the matter of trying to haul Law out of the bed and banish him to the couch.

Even that didn't always dissuade Law.

For two weeks, Kid would wake at some point in the middle of the night to find Law under the covers with him, clothes usually optional and almost always clinging to the red head in some way.

It had only marginally bothered Kid when it had started to happen, and he might have let it slide had Law kept his hands to himself. As the dark haired man didn't, Kid would sleepily and rather grumpily pin Law for the fun of it before wrestling the bastard out if his room to the couch, and then the red head would lock himself in his room.

But even the locks didn't seem to be much of a deterrent, because one morning of the second week of living with Law, Kid woke to the doctor pressed firmly to his side in his sleep.

Kid had known at the time he shouldn't have encouraged it, but he couldn't help but remain that way, staring at Law, until the other man had woken and teased Kid about what he was thinking of doing to him.

It had turned out to be Kid punting Law all but out of his room and dragging a chair against it to deter the other man from trying to get back into his room.

The red haired mechanic could handle dealing with Law at night, because he would deal with the trouble and then drop right off back to sleep, so really, he got enough sleep whether or not Law pestered him.

During the day, however, when Kid was out of the apartment, he couldn't always do something about Law's odd habit.

The dark haired doctor trailed after him during the times they were both out of the apartment, and Kid wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He eventually decided to try and ignore the fact that Law had taken to stalking him outside the apartment. Since it was more of a nuisance than anything, the red head decided he wouldn't get overly upset over it. Law never engaged him outside the house and Kid was fine with that.

It was at the end of week two that Kid really regretted letting Law stay with him, because the bastard wasted no time in waking him up in a different manner than he had the previously.

-x-

Kid had thought that he'd finally gotten Law to leave him alone in the middle of the night, so that the red head wouldn't wake to find the doctor perched on his bed and waiting like he expected the red head to pounce him.

The red haired mechanic found out quite quickly why this morning was different.

The smug son of a bitch had waited until he was passed out on bed and had apparently waited until Kid was mostly asleep before joining him in bed. And the look in Law's eyes let Kid know he was in for it.

Whatever it was.

"Thought I told ya not to come in my room." Kid slurred, his voice still heavy with sleep. "Or do you like being kicked out?"

"I thought I would come wake you up." Law said, and without warning whipped the sheets off of Kid and had his hands on the red head's thighs before the other man could protest. "You got home late, so I left some food in the fridge."

"Looks like you're not looking to have breakfast." Kid offered, unable to help but watch Law get closer and closer to his dick. Dammit. Why had he thought sleeping naked was a good idea when Law was around? The answer to that was that Kid had been too exhausted to think about the doctor, and had only wanted to sleep when he'd returned home the night before. Kid narrowed his eyes at Law. "I thought you said you were waking me up. And I am." Kid was most certainly awake now that he could feel Law's breath ghost across his skin and more importantly, his cock.

This was a very bad idea and Kid knew he should stop this and not encourage Law. Most unfortunately, the red head's damn dick seemed more interested in Law's mouth when the sly bastard got his cock into his mouth and started to lightly suck it.

What Kid should have done was carefully extract Law from his dick, but his body decided to helpfully part its legs for him and allow for further exploration as Kid felt the dark haired man's hand on his left thigh. Of course, that appeared to be what Law had been waiting for, because he almost immediately pulled off of Kid's dick and offered a wicked smirk.

Kid wasn't sure what that look was for until a few minutes later, and as soon as the mechanic figured out what Law was up to, he was beyond frustrated. Damn that Law for waiting until he had let his guard down to do this. Kid shifted on the bed to see what that would do, and the dark haired doctor merely moved along with him and onto the bed for better purchase. The mechanic let out a low growl at one point because fuck, Law was just mapping his dick with his lips and tongue and not blowing him, and Kid wanted to make Law get on with it already.

Bu the red head wasn't going to give in. No, he wouldn't allow it.

With another tortuous lick and light, teasing kiss along the side of his shaft, Kid finally managed to prop himself up on his elbows, because he may as well, and fuck him if that wasn't exactly what Law had been waiting for him to do.

Golden hued eyes briefly met Kid's before they closed and Law rested his cheek against the side of Kid's cock as he slid his right hand around the base. Law let out a soft, obvious moan as he started to mouth along the side of the red haired man's dick like he couldn't get enough of it.

Fuck.

Kid's legs didn't seem to want to obey him, and as he felt that he had parted them as much as he was able to, the red head just stayed where he was and stared. Kid was mesmerized at the way Law ran his lips and tongue methodically over the entire length his cock, all the while keeping his right hand wrapped around the base.

"Trafalgar." Kid muttered, shifting his hips forward, hoping he was making it clear in tone and action what he wanted. The red head even added a helpful groan to indicate that Law should stop with all the teasing and get his dick into his mouth already.

Law drew back to lap at the tip of Kid's shaft before he took it in and gave a delicious suck, before Law popped right back off of it with a slow, breathless laugh. The doctor then proceeded to kiss Kid's length from base to tip while his other hand dropped down to palm his balls.

Kid bucked at that, and let out a sound of frustration.

Son of a _bitch_.

Law was toying with him now, and was more than likely waiting for him to beg for him to blow him.

Fuck that.

Kid didn't beg for anything, from anyone.

Kid twitched as Law stopped what he was doing altogether, and met the red head's gaze again as he gave his lips a slow and obvious lick.

"Have something to say, Eustass?" Law asked with a faint smirk.

"Yeah." Kid grunted in return as he braced himself on his elbows more firmly as he met Law's gaze in return.

"If that's the case…" Law's smirk became blatantly obvious as he rested his cheek against Kid's dick and kissed it absently. "Tell me how much you want it."

"Suck my dick." Kid said bluntly, wearing a nasty grin. "Otherwise I'll fuck your throat instead."

Law's breath hitched against Kid's shaft, but the slip up didn't show on his face as he gave the other man a long stare. And then went right back to kissing and licking his way along Kid's length.

"Hope you like your throat fucked roughly." Kid commented as he pulled himself backward before he sat up and leered at Law, who remained where he'd been kneeling on the bed.

"And how are you going to do this on the bed?" Law asked after a brief moment's hesitation. "How do you know that I wasn't about to suck you off?"

Kid slowly encroached into Law's space and loomed over him so that their faces were inches apart.

"Because you're on the floor, that's why."

"I'm still on the bed." Law said, an infuriating smile crossing his face.

Kid grinned and heaved Law up and off the bed, sending the other man sprawling. As Law righted himself, Kid slid out of the bed and maneuvered Law backward against the side of the bed.

Law settled on his ass and rested his head against the side of the bed, and gave Kid an unimpressed look.

Kid just shoved his dick in his face with a few well-placed steps to trap Law where he was.

"Your manners in bed are very lacking." Law commented flatly, even if he was staring at Kid's length in something of an appreciative way for how hard the red head was.

"You think so, huh?" Kid leaned over and rested his hands on the mattress so that he could loom more effectively over Law, and teasingly pressed closer so that the doctor couldn't avoid looking at his dick. "How about that blow job, Trafalgar?"

"If I refuse?" Law said even as he reached up with a hand to lightly trace Kid's length.

"I fuck your throat, remember?" Kid replied.

"What's in it for me?" Law asked.

"I make you come without touching you?" Kid ventured.

"I doubt it." Law said as he took only the tip of Kid's cock into his mouth and gave it brief suck.

Kid's left hand left the mattress to fist in Law's hair and held him in place before he could pull away. "Oh no, you don't, you asshole. Take it."

Law let out some disgruntled sound as Kid held firm, before he let out what appeared to be an exasperated breath and opened his mouth even as he reached out to grasp Kid's thighs. The doctor dared to sneak his hands up and around to give the red head's ass a brief, inquisitive squeeze.

"Fuck." Kid breathed as Law drew him about halfway into his mouth, before he stopped. Kid, breathing hard, wasn't sure what Law was up to until he felt the dark haired man hum in some form of a laugh, squeeze his ass again, and then refuse to move.

"You looking to get your throat fucked raw?" Kid questioned.

Law gave the mechanic's rear another squeeze and uttered what was unmistakably a laugh.

"Better hang on Trafalgar." Kid warned as he let go of Law's hair to rest the hand back on the mattress. Kid bent slightly as he curled over Law, and gave a light, warning thrust. "I'm gonna fuck that rude mouth of yours."

Law hung on almost immediately as Kid pressed forward.

"C'mon, take it all. Gonna fuck your throat good. Make you gasp for breath until I'm done with ya." Kid heard what was unmistakably a moan, and as soon as Law had taken him all the way in, his throat briefly convulsing at the intrusion, Kid drew back, adjusted, and then started a slow fuck into Law's mouth. Kid knew that the doctor liked it because he adjusted how he was sitting and where his head was angled as Kid rammed his shaft into his mouth at a steady pace.

"You look good with my dick in your mouth." Kid commented at one point.

Law held on tighter to Kids thighs and made some muffled sound.

It sounded like a moan.

Just when Kid was really starting to enjoy himself, and could fell himself getting close, he realized something.

One, he wasn't wearing a goddamn condom.

Two, he had let Law entice him into having sex with him after waking him up. The doctor had entered his room when Kid had repeatedly told him not to.

Kid hadn't realized he had stopped thrusting until Law made an inquisitive sound around the red head's dick that was still mostly in his mouth. Slim hands traced up along Kid's thighs to his ass as if wondering why the other had stopped.

Shit.

Fuck.

Kid had done what he hadn't meant to. He hadn't meant to let any of Law's advances into his bedroom or into his bed actually happen. He had to get Law out of the bedroom, at the very least, and reevaluate how the hell he was supposed to last until the end of the month without giving in to Law's very obvious advances and interest in him.

"Trafalgar…" Kid still had his hands on the mattress, but he had craned his neck down in order to meet Law's confused golden eyes. "If you don't get the fuck out of my room I'm gonna either give you a black eye or a broken nose."

That at least seemed to get through to the dark haired man's lusty mood, as his eyes went from confusion to disappointment and wariness as he slowly slid is mouth off of Kid's cock.

"You're still hard." Law commented, breaking the silence as he wiped one hand across the back of his mouth. The doctor's voice was rough.

Kid had stepped back by then, and gave first his clenched fist a bored once over before he fixed his gaze on Law in an unspoken threat.

Law didn't seem to care and ducked under Kid's halfhearted swipe, his hands going for wither Kid's dick or to wrap around the red head's legs in a grapple.

Probably to distract him in some way or another.

It was too bad that Kid wasn't going to have any of that, and grabbed Law by the arms and none to gently shoved him against the nearest wall. The red head let his weight rest against Law as he breathed dangerously into the other man's nearest pierced ear. "Get out of my room."

Law said nothing; he merely arched back so that his ass pressed against Kid's dick.

The red haired mechanic twitched at that, before he stepped back, and, his hands still tightly grasping Law's own, Kid all but dragged the other man to his door and tossed him out. Kid watched as Law stumbled and fell over onto the living room floor, but the red head didn't wait to see what the doctor did next as he was already closing the door again and locking it.

Out of paranoia, Kid didn't lean against the door to jack off, as he wasn't quite sure, after watching some horror movies, if Law wouldn't stab him through the door with a butcher knife. Based off of Law's desire for Kid to fuck him, or do something to him, the red haired man doubted that would happen. But it didn't hurt to be careful, as he really wasn't all that sure what Law was really capable of. Instead, Kid chose to settle onto the ground near his dresser, and wrapped a hand around his hard dick with a low growl.

"I would have come if you hadn't stopped." Law commented from outside of the door, his voice still a little raspy.

"Yeah, me too, but then I remembered that I didn't want you in my fucking room." Kid snarled back, trying his hardest to finish what Law's mouth had started. It didn't help that Law sounded like he'd had a dick down his throat, and was still running his mouth.

"That is the stupidest and most childish thing I have ever heard." The doctor said, sounding like he was in complete disbelief. "I thought you quite liked fucking my mouth with that dick of yours."

Kid snarled wordlessly at the door, but Law said nothing else, and that left the red haired mechanic to finish off his erection with a few deft movements of his hands. Kid tried his best to not think about how he got off to the thought of coming down Laws smug ass mouth. The red head stated at his hand at the mess he'd made, and that was when Law chose to taunt him out of the blue.

"If you're done getting off, perhaps you would like to have some breakfast?" Law asked snidely. "It would be good of you to not throw me out of the kitchen. I don't want anything to burn. Unlike someone, I actually pay attention when I cook and don't engage in needless arguments over spices and whether or not I choose to cook naked."

Kid scowled at the door as he rooted around in the dresser for clothes. This was definitely not the best way to start the day.

"And as I still need to relive myself, I am going to leave my clothes off." Law could be heard shifting pans around in the kitchen. "I hope that _someone_ might choose to help me do something about it."

The red head was going to tell Law to go jack off on his own, but as soon as the red head exited his bedroom, pants in place and a snug tank to ward off inquisitive hands, Kid swore lowly over the fact that Law had decided on the best way to one-up being naked.

And that was to wear an unfamiliar, rather skimpy apron with a very inappropriate picture on it.

Kid took a breath and let it out.

He would resist.

He would.

He wasn't going to let Law have his way.

Ten minutes later, Kid was eating some eggs and hash browns. There was a rather sated and pleased Law curled up against his side on the couch, drinking some coffee from a mug.

Fuck.

Things were worse than Kid had originally anticipated they would be.

Law pressed himself firm against Kid's side, even though the doctor was finally wearing some clothes. But being clothed didn't stop the other man from making sure Kid know that he was delighted with the hand job he'd been given.

"Do you think you could do that again before you go in to work?"

Kid knew that at this point, he was going to go complain to Killer, and did so when he went in for work a few days later when things took a distressing turn and the red haired mechanic found himself allowing Law to sit next to him on the couch without much of a fuss. Again, Kid received no sympathy whatsoever from his best friend for his decision to let Law linger in his apartment.

That just fucking figured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The notes are being kind of weird and occasionally putting themselves into future chapters. I'll try to get rid of them later.


	5. In Too Deep

"I thought that you said you were going to take care of it?" Killer queried as he worked on paperwork at the desk of the mechanic shop they both worked at.

"I _am_ taking care of it." Kid grumbled in response, moodily spinning himself on the desk chair he'd straddled as soon as he came into the shop. He needed something to do to distract himself from the fact that he had seen that his friend's mouth set into a thin line. Disappointment at its most obvious, if Kid couldn't already hear it in Killer's voice. "Why the fuck do you even care if I got him in my apartment anyway? S'not like you live there with me."

"Because you made it sound as if he was getting on your nerves and you were in danger of getting into a fight, and if you get in a fight, the other person doesn't usually get out unscathed." Killer returned patiently as he set aside a stack of papers.

"I found better ways to deal with that sarcastic asshole." Kid pointedly chose to not tell Killer that Law had threatened him with both a knife and the red head's own damn gun. Kid was pretty sure that his friend would forcibly remove Law from the apartment himself, and Kid wanted to do the honors when the time was right. Besides, getting some money out of the situation for rent was nice, and the red head had to admit it was nice not to have to think about cooking at times. And the arguments…Kid couldn't deny that he derived some strange form of satisfaction out of them, and knew that Law did as well.

"You're thinking about him right now, aren't you?" Killer cut into Kid's thoughts, the blond's tone incredulous. "Why are you thinking about him? Do I even want to know?"

"I am not." Kid bristled defensively before immediately contradicting himself. "You don't want to know."

Killer shook his head but didn't say anything for the longest time as he poured over the paperwork in front of him.

"What are you doing?" Kid finally questioned when the silence between them had stretched on for too long. The red head felt that it was almost as if Killer were expecting him to fess up or something about what was going on in his apartment. No that Kid would have, as at this point the red haired mechanic wasn't even sure himself what was going on in his own apartment. "Killer?"

"I'm looking over the finances for the shop. You know, the ones that you don't think to do because you're so focused on fixing any and all machinery that comes here?" Killer lifted his head, and the way his bangs parted showed off an irritable look. "You do realize there was a bill for hundreds of dollars for parts for a sports car from two weeks ago?"

"Was there?" Kid furrowed his brow. "I remembers workin' on it." The red haired man frowned at his friend. "I thought I had that set up on an automatic…whatever those things are."

Killer gave Kid a disparaging glare.

"What?" Kid snapped, despite the fact that the blond had said nothing.

"If your _head_ …" Killer emphasized the word to indicate which one he was talking about. "…is going to get you into trouble being around that doctor, you really ought to get him out of there sooner. I can send in payment for the bills from one of our shared business accounts. But what you do need to remember is that commissions' parts are something we need to pay for ourselves. That ones that we can't set up an automatic withdrawal for because the places where we get the parts changes frequently. Our basic supplies are withdrawn automatically."

"It was just one thing though, right? I probably just didn't see it." Kid waved at the piles of paperwork on the desk. "Besides, how the fuck am I supposed to find anything in that mess?"

"It is organized, you know." Killer said patiently. "And that's why we agreed that I was going to be responsible for the finances for the most part." The long haired blond let slip a faint smile. "I know you enjoy working in the garage with your hands-on projects. Staring at numbers is too boring for you, even though you're more than capable of dealing with it."

Kid grunted, neither denying nor confirming his friend's words.

"You're not going to let that doctor stay with you indefinitely, are you?" Killer asked after a few minutes of silence had dragged on.

"Just for a month." Kid supplied, and scowled when Killer fixed him with a look he had most certainly become familiar with.

Disappointment mixed with exasperation.

"He knows it, and if he doesn't get his ass out, I'll take it out for him and leave him outside my door." Kid grinned wolfishly. "I won't be responsible for his skinny ass if one of the neighbors decides to give him a hard time on the way out."

"You can talk like that all you want, but I think both of us know you won't do that." Killer had returned to the paperwork.

"What? Toss his sorry ass out?" Kid snorted.

"No, the part about leaving him to fend for himself." Killer continued to look at the papers. "And even if you are a jackass at times, you would at least make sure that he made it out of your apartment before putting him out of your mind."

"Very fucking funny." Kid spun himself around some more on the chair. Killer was wrong. Kid knew that he would have no problem whatsoever tossing Law out and letting him figure out the way to the main door.

But in the middle of week three of living with Law that proved that Killer right in his assumption about Kid's feelings on the matter. It was because of this that the red haired man knew, at the very least, that he actually would make sure that someone didn't kidnap the doctor on his way out of the apartment at the end of the month.

-x-

Kid was enjoying a relaxing night when Law opened the door of the apartment, and slammed it shut with a bit more force than was necessary to get it to close. The lock followed soon after, and Kid snorted, unimpressed at the display. Law went into the kitchen, so Kid dismissed him for the time being, as he chose to enjoy relaxing on the couch after a day of satisfying work on an old model of some luxury car of days gone by.

"Eustass?"

Kid reluctantly opened his eyes, and gave the dark haired doctor a once over before saying anything. Law was standing by the arm of the couch, opposite of where Kid slouched. Another, more important detail emerged, and that was that Law only wore his jeans. Whatever he'd been wearing for a shirt that day only showed off a bare tattooed torso now. And there was one other thing…

"You look like shit. Did you get jumped after your shift?" Kid asked curiously. Law certainly looked like his hair was ruffled, more so than was usual, and he seemed to be holding himself in a careful way. The red head didn't miss the faint grimace when Law shifted from one foot to the other, and certainly didn't miss the way that the other man's voice was visibly subdued.

"If being attacked on the edge of the park here counts, then yes." Law shifted again with a sigh. "Is it too much too hope that you have ice?"

"You were mugged?" Kid asked, more interested now.

"I would assume that is what it would be called, though with more focus, like they were trying to prevent me from leaving the park. They left fast enough when I put up a fight, however." Law fixed Kid with a haughty look. "I take it by your lack of answer that you have no ice."

"Nope." Kid shook his head. "I doubt random punks just jumped ya. What really happened?" The red head believed that he shouldn't have liked the sight of a faint smirk on the other man's face.

"I guess you're smarter than you act at times." Another smirk, which turned into a faint line of indifference. "Some trouble at the hospital. Someone didn't want another person to be operated on, but I did anyway, and saved the person's life. It seems as though the one who didn't want the surgery to go through lost out on a lot of money."

"That's fucked up." Kid commented.

"Indeed." Law flashed a hint of a smile. "I suppose they will be comfortable enough in a jail cell tonight, along with their accomplices."

"You said you fought them off." Kid accused.

"I tried. Luckily, the police took my comment seriously about something potentially happening, and followed me from a distance. Problem solved. I got out of the station a half hour ago." Law remained at the edge of the couch, and Kid finally seemed to take the hint.

The red head was a bit surprised that Law didn't just outright crawl onto the couch and subsequently onto him. Maybe the other man felt any potential roughhousing between them might aggravate the doctor being already beaten up.

"Fuck." Kid let out a sigh of his own, and shifted so that he could rest against the arm of the couch and a pillow that was there, and propped himself up as he stretched his legs out the length of the couch.

Law gave the red haired mechanic a funny look, like he didn't know what he was up to.

"Don't be stupid." Kid grumbled. "Get over here before I change my mind." The red head was surprised with how swiftly Law moved, because suddenly the doctor was settled over him, straddling his waist. There wasn't anything sexual in the position, for the moment, as Law merely folded his body over Kid the rest of the way and buried his face against the side of the red head's neck. Kid felt Law wrap his arms around the back of his neck, before the doctor sagged against him.

"Any particular reason you're being relatively nice tonight?" Law questioned against Kid's skin.

"You wanna sleep on the couch by yourself?" Kid returned.

Law sagged down against the red haired mechanic more heavily and didn't respond. He did wrap his arms more snugly around the back of Kid's neck, however.

For some reason, Kid felt compelled to ask something that he had noticed since the other man had been staying with him. It was stupid, but Kid didn't like it being so quiet.

"Hey, Trafalgar?" Kid felt Law breathe out a light sigh but when he spoke, it was the most reasonable sounding the doctor had ever been.

"Yes, what is it?"

"How come you don't take the elevator?" Kid felt Law let out a soft laugh against his throat.

"And here I was thinking you were going to ask about something else." Law sounded amused.

"Just wonderin'. I do live on the fourth floor, you know." Kid grumbled, wondering if he should have let the silence stretch on after all. "Seems a lot less of a hassle to take the elevator. Puts you avoiding being jumped in the stairwell."

Law let go of Kid's neck so that he could cross his arms over the red head's chest and prop his chin on them. The doctor met Kid's eyes. "I have something of an aversion to elevators."

"You call that an answer?" Kid snorted, even as he reached his right arm around to Law's back to idly trace his hand along bare skin.

"You really want to know?" Law asked dubiously, even as he let out a sigh at what the red head's hand was doing.

"Yeah." Kid grunted, as he let his other hand join in on feeling Law's back up, though he didn't dip his fingertips beneath the waist of Law's jeans. Kid found that he did want an answer now, and thought if he started tracing his fingers down there he wouldn't get one. "Asked, didn't I?"

"You did." Law rested his head against the crook of his right arm and let the left hand trace along what was visible of Kid's collarbone. The doctor was silent a moment longer, before he sighed and launched into an explanation.

Kid hadn't expected it, and wondered if he shouldn't have asked after all.

"When I was younger, around ten years old, my family and I were leaving some convention for doctors, and as the gathering had been at the top floor of the hotel, we needed to take the elevator down to ground level." Law's fingers stilled against Kid's collarbone. "Keep in mind that we were on the 25th floor, and my family and I were the only ones who got into the elevator. We'd left earlier because my younger sister was throwing a fit because she was tired out." The dark haired man's eyes closed briefly.

"About a third of the way down, the elevator stopped, to let more people on. Only one man got on, and thinking back on it, he was acting rather strange. As soon as the elevator began to descend again, the lights went out." Law opened his eyes and stared at the back of his hand. "I was disoriented and fell over, and that was when I heard it. Gunshots." Law felt Kid shift. "It was over with so quickly, and when the man got off on the next stop…" Law shook his head. "I confess I don't remember too well what happened after that, because I must have fainted from the shock of the gunshots and feeling blood when I fell over."

"Damn." Kid dropped his left hand from Law's back to grasp the doctor's that was against his collarbone. "That's even more fucked up than you getting mugged today."

"I never did find out why someone decided to kill my family, and the only conclusion that I could come to was that like today, someone didn't like my parents saving a patient in the hospital, and took steps to ensure they wouldn't be able to help anyone; not even themselves." Law stared at the way Kid held his hand and seemed at a loss to say anything more.

Kid absently ran a finger along the back of the hand he held. "Ten and you didn't become some punk ass on the streets?"

"I was fortunate enough to have contact information for a client of my parent's that I'd seen many times, though it took me three years of living in a foster home to track them down." Law tentatively gripped Kid's hand in return. "I spent that time and the rest after I was adopted into becoming a doctor."

"So you could become a target yourself if you set someone off wrong like today?" Kid asked, not entirely sure why Law was being so careful. He was too distracted by the answer to his question to give it too much thought. "Though I guess that answers why you don't wanna be in an elevator."

"Indeed." Law said dryly.

"What about if someone else went in the elevator with you?" Kid ventured after a moment.

"I'm not taking any chances." Law said shortly, indicating he wished to leave the topic alone.

Kid was fine with that.

The two men lapsed into silence; though the light touching did not, and soon Kid found himself with Law propped up on his chest again and using his newly freed left hand to lightly trace his jaw. Eventually, Law wrapped his arms back around the red haired mechanic's neck, and tucked his head beneath Kid's chin.

Kid wasn't sure how long the two of them lay there on the couch like that, but soon the red head began to feel slightly uncomfortable with how right it felt to be in this position. That he almost enjoyed having Law wrapped around him like this. Almost liked having a non-combative conversation, no matter how depressing the topic had been. Having this feel normal wasn't something Kid wanted to feel, or even admit to thinking about. He didn't want any kind of attachment to the doctor when he was going to be booted out in under two weeks.

Shit.

What the hell was he doing? Since when did Kid listen to someone else spill their guts while…while _cuddling_ of all fucking things? And the hand holding…no, Kid was going to promptly forget that. He was already telling himself that he didn't just go and grab Law's hand like that as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

There was something very wrong with him.

"Eustass?" Law appeared to have noticed the tension rising in the other man's body.

Fuck it.

Kid was going to make this slip back into more comfortable territory, and the best way he knew to do it was to get Law worn out and then leave him on the couch and escape to his bedroom. Kid couldn't believe that he'd allowed this to happen, and to not notice right away that it was something he was trying very hard to not let happen…

No wonder Law had been so damn tentative; he was probably wondering if the mechanic had lost his damn mind.

Maybe Kid had.

"It's too quiet." Kid lied, and slipped his hands down along Law's tanned skin to his waist, and began working the belt loose, and then dragged the zipper of the jeans open slowly. "I'd rather hear you pantin' my name right now." Not clinging to him and cuddling, for lack of a batter term. It made Kid distinctly uncomfortable, because he and Law weren't even going out with one another. The doctor had just decided to drop in unannounced and not get the fuck out of his apartment. There was no reason Kid should have been at all…comforting.

Kid made a face.

For the love of…the red haired mechanic wanted to punch _himself_ for not realizing what the hell he was doing while Law said his piece about why he avoided elevators.

Law wrapped his arms around Kid's neck as the red head palmed his crotch and massaged it through the open zipper of the jeans and the briefs the doctor wore beneath.

"Get naked." Kid demanded, and was surprised that, for once, Law acquiesced to the request and had let go of the red head to maneuver himself out of the jeans. The doctor had to get up off of the couch, though halfway through dropping the jeans over a chair in the room, and hooking his thumbs into his briefs, Law glared at Kid suspiciously.

"Are you sure this isn't some ploy to get me out of your apartment again?" Law asked suspiciously.

"Nah, I just want to get you writhing." Kid said honestly. He didn't mind so much anymore the sex happening so long as Law didn't intrude upon him in his bedroom and try to get something started there. The red head figured doing something sexual at this point in time was a far cry better than acting all…domestic and shit.

Kid shuddered involuntarily. He _was_ going crazy if he believed for even a moment that he liked the idea of Law sticking around long term. Who knew what the doctor would get him to do then? It was a disturbing thought, and one Kid wasn't going to spend any more time thinking about. Luckily, the doctor's question distracted him.

"Are you going to keep your clothes on?" Law eyes the red head's tank and sweatpants.

"What, you want me naked while I jack you off?" Kid grinned at the look that crossed Law's face. Oh, Kid had to get completely naked now with a lusty look like that aimed at him. Kid kept his eyes locked with Law's as he simply pulled his tank over his head, tossed it aside, and made short work of his sweats. The red haired man grinned when Law's gaze dropped to his lap, and Kid knew that the other liked him going commando.

The only thing that bothered Kid at present was that he was already half hard and didn't want to think it was because of Law. Or that it was because the two of them had been casually touching one another before Kid realized that he had to be going insane to allow that to happen.

"What about you?" Law asked, though his eyes on Kid's dick and clearly calculating if he was too sore to be fucked at present. "Or aren't you going to get off?"

"I'll take care of it soon as I'm done with ya. Get back over here." Kid said, brooking no room for argument, and to emphasize his point, he reached out to grab Law's nearest arm. The red head laughed when the doctor narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't think it over too much, doc."

"My name is Law." The dark haired doctor grit out. "Not doc."

"Fine, _Trafalgar_. Get on my lap and let me take you for a different kind of ride." Kid responded with a grin.

Law rolled his eyes at the other man's refusal to call him by name, but straddled Kid willingly enough, his arms dropping back to the red head's shoulders.

Kid reached around and gave Law's ass a squeeze, which drew out a funny sound and caused Law to wrap his arms around Kid's neck again.

The red head moved so that he could rest upright against the back of the couch and decided that Law hanging on to him would make what he had in mind easier. He might not fuck Law tonight out of a grudging respect of his ass being mugged, but that didn't mean that Kid wouldn't get at that ass in another way.

"Hold on tight." Kid muttered, as he groped around near the arm of the couch and grabbed something from beneath the pillow. "Gonna fuck you with my fingers while I get you off."

Law shuddered at that as he muttered something crossly before he let out a faint, pleasured sigh as Kid wrapped his right hand around his cock and gave it a light squeeze.

"Somebody's already hard." Kid laughed against Law's shoulder when the doctor clung closer as the red head began to move his hand. When Law was more focused on his hand and attempting to thrust into it at random intervals, Kid fumbled the cap of the lube off and slid a slick finger down Law's lower back as the red head went further down and pressed the digit in.

Law pressed against the red head's chest with a startled sound, and then a low groan when Kid dragged his hand along his shaft slowly.

"You think about me fucking you often?" Kid asked, as he changed the rhythm he'd set, and thumbed the tip of Law's dick randomly. "You get off to it?"

"Ah…some…sometimes." Law replied breathlessly, though whatever words he may have added were cut by a low moan when Kid added a second finger and moved both digits around with purpose. When Law hissed some foreign-sounding word against Kid's neck and pressed down against the mechanic's fingers, Kid grinned.

"Here?" Kid asked, and laughed when Law let out a huff against the side of his neck. "Well, if I had my cock in you instead, I'd be hitting you where it feels good more often."

"Fingers." Law managed to groan against Kid's skin.

"You have my fingers. Which ones were you meaning?" Kid teased as he continued to move both of his hands at a rather steady tempo. Killer was wrong about him being able to multi task, though perhaps that just could have been because Kid was more motivated to pay attention to what he was doing when having sex. Or working on vehicles in the garage.

"More fingers." Law breathed out, as if that would make things clearer.

Kid supposed it did, because he already had all his fingers wrapped around Law's dick. Kid grinned at the disgruntled sound Law made when he pulled his fingers out, and he gave a light flick to the tip of Law's cock as he spoke. "Just getting more lube. You wanted more fingers so you'll get 'em."

Law just clung to the other man painfully tight at that.

Kid returned two fingers with lube, and then again before he wriggled a third finger in. Apparently it felt good, because Law couldn't help but start making more noise as Kid worked away at him with a childish grin of triumph.

"E…Eustass."

Kid liked the sound of Law practically begging without begging for him to hurry up and finish things before the doctor couldn't take it any longer. The red head snorted. It wasn't like Kid didn't already notice that with the way that Law was trying to ride his fingers in desperation, like he wasn't ever going to be fucked again.

Kid made sure to draw it out, but when Law finally came, and Kid felt it on his stomach and chest, he supposed he was rather close too. The red haired mechanic let go of Law after a few more light, teasing strokes, and then drew his fingers away as well.

Law went limp against his upper body with a sated sigh of pleasure.

"Now move. I need to get off too." Kid said, not willing to wait for Law to recover. "Or I'll change my mind about fucking you tonight." Kid should have known what that gleam in Law's eyes meat by now, and he didn't react soon enough to the dark haired man sliding out of his lap and to the floor, hands resting on Kid's thighs. The only warning Kid got apart from that was a brief smirk before Law had his lips busily kissing the tip of Kid's dick.

Fuck.

Kid let his head drop back, cursing himself for forgetting that Law tended to reciprocate whatever Kid had done, and clearly the other man decided he needed to get Kid off as well, and with an infuriating blowjob.

Infuriating to Kid, because Law fondled his balls while he took Kid's dick in his mouth and the red head heard a muffled laugh.

Belatedly, Kid realized there was no condom, and he scowled down at Law through half open eyes.

The other man seemed to notice, and just pressed his slim fingers around Kid's balls some more like he wanted to get the red head off faster.

Kid clenched a hand and decided if the doctor was going to be stupid and swallow that it was his own damn fault.

Not that Kid had had sex with anyone else for two years, and he had been getting tests just in case he did decide to hop into bed for a night of fun.

Again, Law surprised him, because he pulled off and finished with his hands.

It was a far cry from the aborted blow job that Law had tried to give him before, and Kid wasn't sure what had changed between then and now. He didn't want to give it much thought, because he was having too much fun now to stop.

Kid looked at the mess covering both himself and Law, and let out an annoyed sigh. "Fuck. I hate cleaning the furniture." Kid wrapped an arm absently around Law's back when the other man decided to flop back down on him. "We're taking a shower and getting' clean, so don't go to sleep." Kid warned when Law made as if to use the red head as his makeshift bed.

"Together?" Law asked in amusement.

Kid blinked, thinking over his words, and then let out a low groan as Law busied himself with laying kisses along the red head's exposed collarbone.

"Fuck."

Apparently even sex made it hard to pretend that Law was a temporary, mostly unwanted guest in his apartment, as well as Kid's occasional fuck buddy. Kid was now wondering if he'd made a big mistake and that when the time came, he wouldn't be able to follow through on his word.

Either way, the end of the month couldn't come quickly enough.


	6. Stubbornly In Denial

The last day of the month had finally been reached, and Kid had no patience whatsoever with the way that Law was trying to get him to allow him to stay for a week longer. Kid wasn't sure he could last without extending Law's stay indefinitely and the red haired mechanic didn't want to think about what that said about him.

"I told ya you could stay a month. And that month's done with, so get the fuck outta here." Kid growled as he overrode another of Law's many attempts to start an argument over why he should be allowed to stay there with him.

"You won't be lonely?" Law managed to cut in smoothly, grasping for straws at this point if the doctor thought he even had a remote chance he could get Kid to budge on the matter. "You won't miss me sitting next to you on the couch while you watch TV?"

"I'll be able to sleep more soundly at night without you tryin' to feel me up in bed." The red haired mechanic responded with a snort, his arms crossed. He was not going to think about all the allowances he had made for Law regarding his damn couch. It was just too embarrassing.

"What about-"

Kid impatiently cut Law off for the umpteenth time. "Enough, Trafalgar. Get out. I didn't want you in my apartment to begin with, so staying longer than the first day is more than I shoulda let you. Get out before I make you leave." Kid's glare warned the dark haired doctor off, as if daring him to try and stay.

Law looked very much like he wanted to say something, but with Kid as shut off as he was and not responding to any wheedling he might try, the dark haired doctor finally seemed to give it up as a lost cause after all.

"I don't suppose I could ask you for an escort down to the front doors of the building?" Law queried as he made his way toward the door to Kid's apartment. "Your neighbors tend to get rough with people who leave after 10 at night."

"Get. Out." Kid all but snarled, his patience already long run out. "Those fuckers aren't going to mess with you because they know that the cops patrol around the area enough to notice if something is off."

"It's nice that you think so well of your neighbors." Law said icily. "That you think them incapable of leaving bodies on the ground over fear that the cops might catch them in the act."

"You better get going if you don't wanna find that out." Kid said dismissively. "Though I think they'd rather just fuck ya than kill ya but you're right, I don't know what those idiots across the hall are capable of."

Law flipped Kid off and all but wrenched the door open and slammed it shut behind him.

Kid waited to make sure the doctor didn't come right back through the door before he stomped over to the window in his living room and stared out of the glass, waiting. He might not want Law in his apartment anymore, but he wasn't that much of a dick that he wouldn't make sure that the other man got out and onto the streets all right. The red head propped himself up against the wall as he waited, using the time it took him to leave the apartment as a marker.

"Shit." Kid muttered under his breath when the time went by and Law still hadn't emerged from the apartment.

Son of a bitch.

The red haired mechanic really had just been kidding about the whole dead body thing as he was fairly certain that his neighbors and the rest of the people living in the apartment weren't amateur murderers with a penchant for tall, dark and sexy doctor.

Kid tossed on a coat with a low growl as he swiped his keys, locked his door after him and stomped down the hall. He went for the stairwell, as he knew that Law had explained his reasoning for avoiding elevators. Kid conveniently put from his mind the fact that he'd been practically holding Law to his chest in an approximation of a hug while lying on the couch when that conversation had happened. Kid didn't even want to touch on the whole holding Law's hand. He still regretted he'd done any of it, but it had made Law more tolerable for a few days after it had happened.

Probably part of the reason why the doctor had attempted to let him stay longer. Perhaps Law had been hoping that it might happened again, where Kid would lose his damn mind and want to cuddle while feeling one another up on the fucking couch again.

With a silent snarl at the very thought, the red head wrenched the door to the stairwell open and started to stomp down each step. His mind was back on looking to where the doctor had gotten to, and Kid figured it would just be his day if he found Law face down and dead or being gang banged or something. All because Kid couldn't be bothered to see the sarcastic asshole out the front door of the apartment, which wouldn't have taken that much time out of his life. A different kind of emotion surfaced when Kid rounded the last corner of the stairwell, and found the irritating son of a bitch casually leaning against the wall near the door that led out to the hall of the first floor.

Fuck.

Damn it all.

Law had him by the balls if he was so certain that the red haired mechanic would come after him to make sure that he was all right and not lying on the ground and bleeding out.

Shit.

Kid didn't think that this was very fair at all, because it said a lot more about how he felt about the other man than he would ever admit aloud to Law. Kid could see that the dark haired doctor seemed to come to the same conclusion, even though when he spoke, it was still in the same cold and distant tone as before.

"It's good to know that you would have had some form of guilt should something have happened to befall me." The dark haired doctor pushed away from the wall and walked over to Kid, where he corned the red head against the railing. "But you want to know something else?"

Kid bunched defensively against the railing as he glared down his nose at Law, not saying a damn thing because fuck, he'd fucked up but he wasn't going to say so. Law was the one who'd imposed on him in the first place, pretty much destroying Kid's desire to have anything to do with him. Not to mention the whole kiss in the car thing when the dark haired doctor really let him know of his interest. But it was pushing it for Law to invade his personal property and make a nuisance of himself for not leaving when asked and had instead made himself comfortable in the red head's apartment and even stayed longer when Kid had caved in and allowed it.

"Eustass?"

So technically, it was Law's fault for shit going down the drain between them, because dammit, no matter how hard he tried, Kid couldn't forget about the time he'd practically cuddled with Law on the couch. And now, with Law close enough to trace his fingertips along his chin and Kid didn't immediately shove the bastard away, a new, more dangerous thought crossed Kid's mind. It almost, almost hurt to think that that could have been a semi regular thing.

"Cat got your tongue?"

Kid glowered at the sarcastic tone. That is, the red haired mechanic might have been fine with something, if it weren't for how Law had chosen to stick around instead of acting like a normal person and trying to, oh, say, date Kid before he tried to move on in to his place.

Kid felt those fingers continue to lightly trail beneath his chin as Law waited for an answer from him.

Fuck.

Now that he was thinking about it, Law might have been someone Kid _wouldn't_ have minded dating. Or whatever. The sex had been good, however grudgingly Kid had started out over it in an attempt to get Law to leave.

"What's on your mind, Eustass?" Law asked in a darkly taunting way, leaving little distance between their bodies as the doctor let his other hand join in on tracing Kid's jaw, and then rising to his cheeks.

Kid kept his mouth shut, because dammit, Law's fingers were very distracting and so was that fucking intent gaze the other man held him in. The doctor's golden eyes seemed to be calculating him in one way or another, and whatever it was that Kid was or wasn't doing appeared to answer something, and Law didn't seem to like it. Fucking hell. Kid had to go and admit to himself then and there that he and Law _had_ been practically going out with one another, minus eating out or doing normal date things. The sex. The banter. Fuck, even them taking turn cooking meals. Not to mention the fact that Law was outright caressing his cheeks now and Kid wasn't doing a damn thing to stop him and had in fact stooped in order to give the doctor better access when Law's hands went up to his hairline.

The red haired mechanic felt so fucked as well as confused out of his damn mind because he didn't know why he wanted Law to touch him. Just that it felt kind of nice. Then again, Kid wanted Law gone and out of his apartment, so why didn't he just shove him away and get the fuck away before he did anything else stupid?

"I find it hard to believe that you are very serious in wanting me gone. Look at you. How does this mean that you want me to leave?" Law questioned of the way that he was practically threading his hands through Kid's hair and the mechanic was practiacally leaning over against Law's chest at this point.

"Getting' to that." Kid muttered distractedly, only a tad bit surprised when Law tightened his grip on his hair in order to get him to back off.

"I'm going to tell you something, Eustass." Law said matter of fact as his hands left Kid's hair to cup his cheeks. "I was interested in something between us, but that probably hasn't sunken into that thick skull of yours." Law urged Kid over a fraction more and locked lips with him, hard and fast so that the red head had no time to react.

Kid hadn't expected the kiss at all, nor did he expect the level of intensity to it either as Law wasted no time into forcefully licking and nipping his way in. It was as if the doctor were trying to drive as much air out of Kid's body as he ravaged the inside of his mouth in a way that the red head would not soon forget. Not for days, if at all. And when the kiss broke, Kid found himself almost disappointed that it had ended, and caught the knowing smirk on Law's face. For some reason, instead of angering him as it out to have, Kid felt couldn't let things be as they were. As Law turned away, Kid chose to ignore the painful clench in his gut at the sight and instead moved before his mind could catch up to him.

Law obviously hadn't been expecting the red haired man to seize him by his right arm; otherwise the doctor would have left more quickly.

"Let go of me." Law said flatly, not sounding at all pleased as he shot a venomous glare the other man's way.

Kid couldn't speak, not with that goddamn feeling of his guts twisting themselves into knots, so he forcibly dragged Law back up against his chest and urged the doctor up on his toes so the red head could crash their lips together. Kid refused to call it a kiss of desperation. The red haired mechanic felt Law's whole body go taut before the doctor fought to struggled free, but Kid held on tight to Law's arm as well as kept firm with his own left arm he couldn't remember wrapping around the back of Law's waist.

The red haired mechanic could feel Law struggle at first, before the doctor all but melted into the kiss with a helpless groan. Law even helpfully wrapped his legs around Kid's waist when the red head hoisted him into the air with his hands beneath Law's ass as he gave it a brief squeeze. Kid liked this angle better, and even though he felt this was something he probably shouldn't be doing, what with getting Law the hell out, he couldn't stand to think that Law could get the last word…kiss…in. Kid maneuvered the two of them over to the nearest wall, and pinned Law against it in order to free up one of his hands. The red haired mechanic dragged a hand through Law's hair before gripping it tight.

Law's boots dug in against Kid's lower back as the doctor's arms fell to either of the red head's shoulders, pressing instead of gripping, but Kid ignored the silent motion. He was too busy kissing the smirking bastard but he did notice when Law dug a heeled toe hard into his back.

Kid let go of Law's hair and released the other man from the kiss to glower at him. The red head briefly distracted Law by backing away slightly in order to drop him to the ground. Once settled, the dark haired doctor aimed a displeased look Kid's way.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Law demanded breathlessly. "I thought you were kicking me out?"

"I am, but I wasn't gonna let you leave with that damn smirk."

"So you want me to leave unhappy?" Law ventured, looking more pissed off then upset. "That's funny, considering you just kissed me again."

"Nah, I just didn't want ya to leave with a smile from somethin' you did." Kid said, and then grinned as he slid a knee between Law's legs and trapped him up against the wall again. Kid quickly craned his head over to lock Law in another kiss before the doctor could manage a response, and this time, he felt Law pressing his hands against his chest in an attempt to get him to back off. Kid moved his own hands in response, bringing one to Law's chin to angle his head back to better deepen the kiss, and his other hand went to Law's shoulder to press him against the wall. Kid nipped and licked his way into the kiss until Law had no choice but to breathe in some air, and when the doctor did, Kid made sure to explore Law's mouth in an aggressive and demanding way, all the while slowly grinding his knee into the other man's crotch.

Somewhere in the middle of the kiss Law's hands stopped pushing and instead moved shakily to tightly grip Kid's forearms, the dark haired man finally moaning something into the kiss the red haired mechanic was busily forcing on him. Law sounded torn between wanting what Kid was giving to him and giving the red head a piece of his mind the moment the kiss broke.

And then Kid stopped, as if just realizing what he was doing.

Kid backed away abruptly, his hand dropping from Law's chin. Before anything could be said or done by the doctor, Kid used the grip he already had on Law's shoulder to tug him away from the wall. The red head used that momentum and the dark haired man's startled state to send Law stumbling toward the stairwell door.

"Get outta here." Kid grumbled crossly, even as he inched his way toward Law in order to loom over him. The red head was indicating without words that he was more than willing to do more in order to get Law the hell out.

The dark haired doctor's expression turned cold again, and he didn't give Kid a second glance as he turned away and headed for the stairwell door.

"Good-bye, Eustass."

So much for leaving with some form of a smile.

Kid tried and failed to ignore the fact that beneath the cold anger of the doctor's voice, there had been a thread of genuine hurt. And no matter how much the red haired man tried to get the tone out of his head, he couldn't. Kid tried to make his actions hold up, but kept coming back to the hurt that had been in Law's voice. And the uncomfortable clench in his gut that he'd experienced when Law had turned away.

Had the dark haired doctor actually believed there had been some kind of relationship going on between them?

Kid shook his head as he headed back up the stairwell to his apartment.

No, that couldn't be it, could it? Neither of them had ever brought up the notion and perhaps that had been for the best.

The red haired man's thoughts were broken for the most part when he started a fist fight with one of his neighbors down the hall about whether the piece of ass that had just left the building was available. Kid pretended he didn't get riled up over the thought of Law fucking around with someone else, and wondered just what the fuck was wrong with him that it would even cross his mind to get jealous of all things.

Kid, once he'd gotten back to his apartment with a black eye and a smug grin of paying it back twofold decided that in the matter regarding Law, the red head would choose to dismiss the whole confusing month from his mind entirely.

A tiny amount of guilt lingered, and for what purpose, Kid didn't know. The red head just knew that it pissed him off that it was there at all, but even that could easily be overlooked.

Kid wouldn't miss the dark haired doctor's presence at all.

-x-

Ture to Law's good-bye in the stairwell of the apartment, Kid didn't see the other man at all for a whole entire week after those words had been said. It was great, because the red head could go to sleep without waking to wandering hands. He could make as much of a mess in the kitchen when he cooked without Law being there to bitch him out over making more of a mess than was necessary.

Gone were the infuriating and heated exchanges between Kid and Law. Gone was the red head's worry that he might find Law sneaking into his apartment to raid his refrigerator for a midnight snack.

With each passing day, the better Kid felt about his choice to make Law get the hell out of his apartment and apparently his life, judging by the doctor's complete absence from it. Hell, Kid was even able to help Killer out a bit with paperwork in the shop in addition to working on the various vehicles brought into the garage. Everything was going just great, and Kid was pleased that his daily life was falling back into place without the dark haired man in it to throw Kid off.

It was just too bad the euphoria of getting exactly what he wanted changed about a week into a complete lack of Law in his life.

Much to Kid's horror, he found that he actual missed the other man.

Missed _him_ , of all things.

-x-

The first time that Kid realized that he missed Law was in the garage of his shop, working on a motorcycle. Somewhere in the middle of working on some gears, Kid had the entirely inappropriate thought that he wanted to fuck Law over a motorcycle. It didn't matter if it would be damn near impossible without falling off, so the red head's thoughts lingered on how to make it work.

Kid supposed that the first thing he'd do would be to get Law good and naked, rile the other man up, and then get him to hang on the seat while Kid finger fucked him and he'd whisper all the dirty things he would do to him. Then the red head would fuck Law with the other man hanging on to the bike and hell if that wasn't a good image. The way Law's back would arch, the way he'd pant and harass Kid with demands to go harder, faster…

The red haired mechanic blinked when he realized he was getting a fucking hard on over a thought and growled as he attacked the gears. Why the fuck was he even thinking about Law anyway? It wasn't like he actually missed the smug son of a bitch. Kid cursed and dug around for a wrench as a thought crossed his mind.

Dammit.

He _did_ miss Law, didn't he? It was stupid, really, because the only thing the dark haired doctor ever managed to do was aggravate and annoy him to the point of heated exchanges and lots of sex. Kid shook his head with a growl, trying hard not to think about the fact that he hadn't had any sex since Law had left the apartment.

Maybe that was why he'd briefly given thought to fucking Law against a motorcycle, despite the potential hazard of the vehicle falling over.

Kid gave his head another firm shake as he set the wrench aside. It was best not to overthink it. It was better that Law was gone in the long run, because Kid wasn't sure what would have happened had he stayed any longer than he had. But the more Kid thought about it as he worked on the motorcycle, the more horrified the red head became over the fact that he really and truly did miss having Law around.

The thoughts lingered with him throughout the rest of the day and then into following days.

One evening Kid even had to admit to himself that actually enjoyed getting into fights with Law, most of them verbal. The escalation of those verbal sparring matches tended to end when Kid would restrain Law in some way or another while the other man kept up with his verbal abuse, not willing to admit defeat.

But no matter how Kid felt over the whole thing, he refused to seek Law out, because the red head soon figured something out.

The only reason Kid hadn't seen neither hide nor hair of Law was likely because the dark haired doctor was pointedly avoiding him as well. It made it easier for Kid to lie to himself that he didn't miss having the other man around. It at least prevented the red head from trying to go out for a drink because he highly doubted Law would be lured in by something like that.

The whole ignoring Law's existence and trying very hard not to image the many erotic positions he could have had the man in was going well, until the text messages started to ping to Kid's cell phone more often than the occasional one to try and get the red head to speak to Law.

-x-

2 months later

-x-

Kid was lounging on his couch on a rainy day, absently checking his text messages when his phone let him know that he just received a new message. The red head thought that it might be Killer with an update on where the fuck he was supposed to go to fix some stuck up snob's showy car. The red head's jaw set at the sender of the text, and wondered what the hell the other man was thinking after two months of barely any contact but for a brief text or two. It just fucking figured that Law would choose to break the silence now, and right when Kid had almost been able to put the entire encounter out of his mind and get on with his life.

_Do you really not want to see me?_

The red head stared at the text and snorted softly. He wasn't even going to bother answering that one because the response was obvious. Of course Kid didn't want to see Law. That was the whole point of not going out to look for him, even though Kid knew that he could have found Law at the hospital. Another text message caused Kid to heave a sigh, but he decided to at the very least read the texts. He didn't feel obligated to respond to them.

_Can I talk to you?_

Kid let out a laugh at that one. The red head highly doubted it; they hardly had civil conversations without it turning into some verbal sparring match, followed by some sort of sexual act. Kid hadn't fucked Law since the first time, but that didn't mean he hadn't gotten him off in another way. The red head grit his teeth. No, he wasn't going to fucking talk to Law. That would make it harder for Kid to forget about him.

_I want to see you._

Kid sure as hell didn't want to see the dark haired doctor, even if there was a tiny part of him that foolishly did. Kid wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer to what he would do if he saw Law again, because he had a pretty fucking good idea already and it pissed him off to no end.

No, he wasn't going to respond at all to Law's texts now. But out of curiosity, Kid continued to read them as they came in.

_If you want, I can go away whenever you don't want me around. I just want to see you again._

Kid couldn't help but have a good laugh over that. He was suspicious over the idea, as it hadn't seemed like Law would ever willingly go away even though the red head had told him to. It wasn't like Law would have changed so drastically in two months. Kid almost thought the texts were done with, because the red head didn't respond to them. A rather misspelled text came five minutes later.

_I gess I shdn't bther._

Kid snorted at the misspellings and wondered what the fuck was going on in Law's head. Of course the doctor shouldn't bother trying to see him again. He had told him good-bye anyway, so that should be the end of it. Kid stared at his cell quietly. It was probably better that way, even if the red head admittedly enjoyed that one time they'd had sex and then the other time they almost had sex until Kid had gotten his head on right. Plus all the other things, like partial blow jobs and the numerous hand jobs. Fuck, Kid had to admit now more than ever that he missed Law's sharp tongue in an argument over the stupidest shit.

_No one wants to bother with me anymore unless they happen to want something from me._

Kid blinked at that text, sent some ten minutes after the misspelled one. The red head didn't ever recall asking anything of Law apart from rent money and cooking a meal now and again. Kid was beginning to get a bit of a bad feeling about this, but didn't think that-

Another text popped up, solidifying the bad feeling Kid had.

_No one would care if I vanished one day._

Ah, hell, Law _was_ going there. And here Kid thought that the dark haired doctor was all calm and collected for the most part and wouldn't stoop to this kind of thing. Kid frowned as another message came in, and wondered how likely it was that Law was being genuine and not trying to yank his chain.

_Maybe sooner would be better._

Kid started to mentally pace, not bothering to get up off of his couch. He probably should have given short replies to Law, but now that he hadn't, it would probably upset the doctor further that he got the messages but had chosen to not reply to begin with. Kid scrolled back and belatedly realized he had had some unanswered texts weeks before, and supposed it would be odd for him to answer after all that silence but-

Another text arrived and what was written hit Kid in some way because it made him realize he didn't know very much about Law, and hadn't bothered to ask any questions but for the one about the elevator, and that hadn't been cheerful because it was how Law had lost his family.

_I may as well be dead myself with the way things have turned out._

He was better off what now? Kid furrowed his brow at the text, almost, almost sending one in return. But he still wasn't entirely sure whether or not Law was just toying with him or if he was actually being serious. It had been hard to tell with Law to begin with, and for some reason, it bothered Kid that he didn't know what the doctor was intending with 'the way things turned out.' Did Law mean kicking him out of the apartment or something else? Did Law mean what had happened to his family in the elevator?

_I don't even know if you're getting these anymore._

It had started to rain harder outside, but Kid was up on his feet and prowling around his apartment now. He received a text again when he was between the living room and the front door of his apartment. For not receiving anything from Law often before, the red head was sure getting them one after another now. Kid's breath caught at what was on the screen, sending his mind whirling into the territory of 'oh fuck' and 'what the hell?'

_I won't trouble you any longer._

There were no texts after that, and to Kid it seemed ominous. Like Law really was going to go and do something stupid. Kid threw on a furry jacket from the small coat closet, rain be damned, and stalked out of his apartment. He didn't even know where to begin to look for Law and Kid ended up fruitlessly searching for over an hour before he had to take a break and reevaluate what the fuck he was doing. The red head's phone rang and he ducked beneath the awning of a building to answer it without looking, and grimaced at the tone the caller had.

It was Killer.

' _You didn't take your gun out into public, did you, Kid?'_ The blond's voice was concerned and a little bit disgruntled all at once. _'You know you don't have a permit to carry it around outside of your apartment.'_

Kid stopped dead, thinking to how he'd thought, earlier in the day, that it seemed like someone had been in his apartment when he'd come home.

Son of a _bitch_.

If Kid's gun was missing from his apartment that could only mean one thing; Trafalgar hadn't been joking around with those morose texts. There was only one person the red head knew that could break into his apartment and know where he kept his gun. Fuck. Why had he loaded the gun with bullets again? Why had Kid thought it would be a good idea to keep the gun fully loaded in his place anyway?

Kid checked the text messages from Law again before he cursed aloud, not caring that Killer could hear him doing so. The texts had stopped over an hour ago. For all Kid knew, Law could have already blasted his brains out and would be lying somewhere and bleeding out for someone to find.

_Fuck._

"I'll call you back." Kid said distractedly, but Killer wouldn't have any of it.

' _Where is the gun, Kid?'_

"I don't fucking have it. That damn Trafalgar probably does." And that bastard could be anywhere by now. Kid tried and failed to not image him lying dead somewhere, because the red head didn't want to think it a possibility. What that said about him, Kid didn't want to know at that point in time, and he certainly didn't want to know why his gut was twisting itself into knots over the rather distressing thought of Law being dead.

' _Why would he have your gun?'_ Killer asked, and when the answer from Kid was clearly taking too long, the blond added. _'As much as I hate to say it, you better find him before he does anything foolish. It_ is _your gun. The cops could draw their own conclusions.'_

"Shit." It would just fucking figure that Law could be warped enough to off himself and then lay the blame on Kid for some imagined slight. Whatever that would be. Because Kid was now wondering if Law's issue with him was something that had happened when the red head was drunk, because those were the only times he had blanks in his memory.

' _Call me later.'_

"Stay at my place and I'll tell you in person."

' _If you bring Law home with you I'd rather you call me. I needed to get to the shop anyway.'_ Killer responded.

Kid growled an unintelligible response at the very thought and hung up on his friend. After a brief moment of thought, the red head, against his better judgment, decided to head to the largest cemetery in the city, as Law had been hinting in his texts that he may as well be there with the way things had turned out. Well, dead anyway, and dead people were put in the cemetery as far as Kid could tell. There were enough graves there anyway, stretching out as far as the eye could see.

But Kid was only going because the last message Law had texted him was suspiciously close to a final good bye, and the red head was in no mood to be pinned down for murder when he wouldn't have even pulled the trigger. And irritatingly enough, unlike the night that Law had kissed him unexpectedly in the car, Kid didn't think he could really pull the trigger on the dark haired doctor anymore. Or ever follow through on the body bag threat.

Depending on how things turned out, Kid could be fucked in several different ways, and none of them were very pleasant.

Least of all admitting that he might actually have an interest in Law after all, as much as the red head attempted to deny it. And tried to deny, as he had ever since it had happened, that it had felt right holding Law on the couch in a companionable silence following Law's answer to him about elevators.

Kid believed that he was most certainly fucked no matter what he chose to do.


	7. Confessions and a Gun

Law stood unseeingly in the cemetery, pointedly ignoring the pouring rain that seemed to fall endlessly upon him. He was exhausted, stressed out, and feeling completely hopeless. He'd not yet told Doflamingo that Kid was the person who had distracted him two years ago; otherwise he knew that Doflamingo would have gleefully been offering his assistance. But Law wanted to do the revenge on his own.

It was harder than he had expected it to be. It was much more difficult than Law had anticipated it would be to get through to Kid, to get him interested in him enough to follow through with his carefully laid out plans. The unexpected parting kiss that Kid had given him in the stairwell of the apartment seemed to have meant something, until the red head continued to insist, as he had on and off all that month, to get out. Which Law also assumed to mean to get out of his life altogether, and the doctor had done so, despite the many times he had almost gone to confront Kid anyway.

And Doflamingo…

Law would have thought that the man would have given up on him already and left him to his own devices. But no. There was still the constant badgering for Law to involve himself in some shady clinic that for years Law had refused. The offers had come more frequently the past two years after Rocinante had died in the accident, and Law had to wonder if the younger Donquixote brother had attempted to get his older brother to leave him alone.

Quite frankly, the dark haired doctor was too worn out at this point in time to try and explain himself to Doflamingo, which had resulted in some nasty exchanges. Especially in the last two months when Law had had to be rescued from several attempted muggings, as well as a few stalkers in the hospital. Law wasn't even going to think about someone trying to assassinate him or kidnap him into a strange vehicle, because he didn't think that he had pissed anyone off that badly.

Unless it had something to do with Doflamingo; the man was a black market dealer in the underground, so it wouldn't be all that surprising that some potential rival would want to kidnap Doflamingo's 'pet' doctor in order to get something out of the businessman.

Not that Law had actually ever worked for Doflamingo, no matter how hard the man tried to get him to do so. Law felt his potential kidnappers would have found that a moot point and used Doflamingo being Law's step-uncle as leverage. Not that Doflamingo would have given into such demands. No, he would have had the rest of the family do some over the top rescue mission that would involve a lot of dead bodies. Law's possibly included if those kidnappers found him too much of a liability.

But Law hadn't been kidnapped, or assassinated by his mysterious shadows over the past few months. Things had been a lull when he'd been living with Kid, apart from the mugging which he had attributed to as something work related, and Law hadn't a clue why he would be safer with the red head. There were a few reasons that Law could think of, but none of them were something he wished to consider. He didn't think that Kid had the capacity to take orders from anyone, so the idea that the red haired mechanic was somehow preventing people from getting to him was laughable.

And that all brought Law back to standing in the rain in the cemetery. Doflamingo and his family had been urging him more and more to come home, where they could better keep an eye out on him so that nothing unfortunate happened to him.

Law had left the mansion soon after, refusing to do that, and refusing to admit that he did need someone to watch out for him. Even now, standing where he was, Law knew that he was a perfect target, with no one there to keep an eye out for some assassin or would be kidnapper. A possibility, but at this point, he couldn't be brought to care if any of those things happened because the doctor was so exhausted he probably wouldn't even notice if he was shot. Law's hands twitched at his sides at the idea, and of the thought of something he had done earlier in the day.

The dark haired doctor pulled up the hood of his jacket over his head, which didn't do all that much to shield him from the rain as it too was already soaked. All of his clothes were. But at the very least, the hood kept the rain out of his eyes, and that was the intent. Not to keep himself dry, but to make him be able to see without being blinded by the rain.

Law winced slightly as he shifted his legs from where he'd been standing for an unspecified amount of hours. With a faint sigh, Law settled on to the saturated ground in front of a grave, and absently laid a few flowers down in front of it as he stared dully at the name etched into the headstone.

_Donquixote Rocinante._

"I meant it when I said I would avenge you." Law whispered brokenly to the headstone. "But I am not so sure if I can do that anymore." The doctor's right hand slid along a gun as he brought it out from within the pocket of his jacket, lightly tapping it on his knee as he spoke to the headstone. He didn't need any assassins to show up, as Law was very much considering saving them trouble and doing the deed himself.

"I'm too tired. Your brother won't stop bothering me and I can't seem to get any sleep because of all these assassination threats and attempted kidnappings. And I still have no answers from Kid." Law's lips curved into a bitter smile. "He probably got a different number. I wouldn't be surprised. He is smarter than he acts." Law sighed as he stared down at the gun in his hand in a transparent manner. "Perhaps it would be better to just join you, Cora. Everyone only wants something from me now; they don't care about what I want or how I feel. I couldn't even get Kid to-"

Law fell completely silent at the sound of footsteps. They were heavy and sure footed, yet at the same time, the gait of the person appeared to be tentative. There were a few occasional pauses before the footsteps would start up again.

It was as if…they were looking for something in particular and hadn't yet found it.

Law squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't stand the idea of being brought back home and spending another minute in that house. The doctor wouldn't stand for it. He'd had enough. Law wasn't even considering the possibility that it might be someone there to harm him in some way, because he had finally stopped caring.

When the footsteps Law heard became rapid, he knew that it was because the owner of those footsteps had found what they wanted. The dark haired doctor's right hand wrapped around the gun possessively as the footsteps suddenly slowed. Law refused to move away from that spot, no matter who it happened to be that was coming for him.

And they would come to him, from the sound of it. He was hard to miss, even seated on the ground as he was. His jacket was black and yellow, and that would have made him stand out in the dreariness of the cold stone graves around him.

Law had not seen anyone else in the cemetery, and why would they be? It was pouring out. Anyone with common sense would have brought an umbrella, a rain jacket, or would have just stayed home or indoors somewhere. The thought of his own studio apartment and being all alone was unappealing to Law, but he couldn't go back home without painful memories being dredged up. He couldn't go to the hospital often because of potential stalkers and because Doflamingo would be able to find him and somehow convince him to go home. And Law could no longer go back to Kid's apartment.

Not anymore.

In fact, Law didn't want to go anywhere until he figured out how he could have his revenge, and even that seemed to be out of his reach. He had nothing to go on. Not when Kid couldn't remember him and what he had caused Law to lose that night two years ago. Law's spiraling thoughts screeched to a halt at the sound of Kid's voice, audible even over the downpour.

"What the fuck are you doing out here?" Kid demanded as he appeared out from behind the headstone. The red head seemed to notice the gun and scowled for a moment, before he offered a faint grin. "You plannin' on kicking the bucket?" Kid's tone became a mix of taunt and tease. "I could help you with that. It is my gun, you thieving bastard."

"You want to help me pull the trigger?" Law asked placidly as he raised the gun and made it clear he was very much thinking of what Kid seemed to catch on to. Law even sat up straighter as shifted to face the red head, though he remained seated on the ground. "It seems you got my messages after all." The dark haired doctor didn't bother saying anything after that, instead choosing to go through with the original plan he had as soon as he'd walked through the gates into the cemetery that day. Law brought the gun up to the side of his head and let all thought go, so he wouldn't focus too hard on the fact that his hand shook the faintest bit.

"The fuck are you doing?"

Law didn't expect Kid to be so quick, or so rough, or even to sound panicked at all. One moment Law had his finger on the trigger, then next minute he had Kid tackling him to the wet ground and pinning him with his bulk. Law struggled for a moment, at least until Kid squeezed his right wrist that held the gun and Law let out a choked sound of protest at how tightly the red head's grip was. The doctor, however, refused to let another choice be taken out of his hands.

"Let go of the gun, Trafalgar." Kid growled.

Law's eyes were shut tight as he sucked in a quick breath. He felt that Kid was purposefully using his weight to keep him down, because Law could feel the way the red head shifted over him. It became clear why. Kid's other hand was now against the back of Law's tattooed one; the hand that held the gun.

"Don't fucking pull the trigger." Kid said, and then, for some reason, hastily added. "Don't want you to waste the bullets."

Law let out a hollow laugh at that. "Yes, that would be an inconvenience, wouldn't it? I'm sure that's the only thing that would have upset you. A waste of bullets." The doctor's eyes remained closed, because he had felt Kid move after he'd spoken, and didn't want to see the other man's expression. Law did, however, notice the way Kid's hand traced over his own, even if the man's grip around the doctor's right wrist had not let up on pressure.

"I'm serious, let go of it."

"No." Law wondered if Kid would take him up on his offer to help him pull the trigger. The red head seemed to want to make him miserable, what with getting his hopes up and then kicking him out of the apartment. Not that Law was surprised; he had just hoped that Kid would have given some thought about things between them, as they'd been around one another long enough for Kid to at least have the idea cross his mind Although why that would matter when Law had wanted revenge didn't precisely make sense. Why would Law want to go through all the trouble of making the red head want him, only to tear Kid's heart up in shreds and watch the anger and disappointment well up? It seemed simple enough, as far as revenge went, but now that Law had his thoughts hyper focused after nearly pulling the trigger of that gun, the idea of what he'd been doing with Kid seemed kind of stupid on his part.

"I'm not lettin' ya go that easily." Kid unnecessarily bumped his head against the side of Law's in an almost unconscious gesture. "You could have gone to see me at my shop. You never let me saying no to you stop you from bothering me before, anyway. Or don't ya remember that?"

Law let loose a humorless laugh at that. "You made it clear that you didn't want me around, so I didn't see the point."

"Thought you were supposed to be smart, doc."

Law's retort was cut short by lips pressing to his. The dark haired man's right hand twitched around the gun, wondering if he ought to shoot Kid instead of himself. Law had had enough with Kid's confusing signals. Did the man want him or not? Why did Kid keep kissing him when he said he didn't want him around? Law's lips set in a firm line, denying the haired mechanic access, because he was not at all in the mood for this.

Kid had other plans, it seemed, because he became more insistent with the kiss, and made the occasional taunting lick, as if to draw Law into the kiss.

Infuriatingly, this meant that Law could not lodge a protest, and the thought made him grip the gun firmly, even as Kid's hand squeezed his wrist in return, warning him off from doing anything stupid.

"C'mon, doc. Let go of the gun already." Kid whispered against Law's lips. "If you blow your brains out, I won't be able to kiss you anymore."

Law fell into the trap and opened his mouth to tell Kid to fuck off, but the red head merely let out a low chuckle in response to the action and gave the doctor an open mouthed kiss.

It had been two months since the last parting kiss, and as Law continued to keep his eyes closed, he wondered if perhaps he was already dead and he was just imaging Kid kissing him. But the longer Kid explored his mouth, the more Law became aware of the fact that it was real, and he just went limp on the ground as Kid went at his mouth with a low growl.

Kid shifted a little as he moved his right hand from where it was resting against the back of Law's hand to cup the doctor's right cheek in order to turn him and continue to better give him a slow and deep, thorough kiss.

Law finally gave in and made the attempt to kiss back, his grasp around the gun going slack as Kid responded to his action and used the hand against Law's cheek to hold him in place as they kissed.

Kid drew away suddenly, and Law, breathing hard, opened his eyes in time to notice two things.

The first was Kid grinning triumphantly down at him from where the red head already back on his knees. The second was that Kid had succeeded in retrieving his gun.

Law's expression shuttered to a neutral one, the tiny hope that had been rising within him during the kiss crushed in an instant when he realized Kid had just tricked him into letting go of the gun.

With a kiss.

That fucking asshole.

"If that's all, you can leave me alone now." Law turned his head away from the sight of Kid busily removing bullets from his gun. Not that that mattered. Law could always find another gun if he really wanted to, or not put up a fight if someone tried to kidnap him again. Law rubbed his aching right wrist and believed, from the pressure Kid had had on it, that it would likely bruise. It figured. Kid couldn't handle anything delicately even if his life depended on it. Did the red haired mechanic always have to be so aggressive and in one's face? Law stood on unsteady feet as he decided that he didn't want to be soaked through any more than he already was. There was no forthcoming scathing response from Kid, so Law just presumed the man had gotten what he wanted and left.

"Dumbass." Kid grunted out of the blue, and from the sound of it, had risen to his feet as well.

Before Law could do anything about that comment, a jacket dropped over his head. Law automatically grasped it, and found that it was warm and furred around the edges. It took away some of the cold he was feeling from being soaked to the bone in the rain. Law snuggled further under the jacket, reveling in the warmth and knowing that it was Kid's because it smelled like him. Law lifted his head to stare down at the headstone again, before he closed his eyes. Despite Kid's rather odd offering after tricking him of all things, Law doubted that the cold rain wouldn't affect him negatively in some way. And the thought was confirmed when he staggered slightly, and started to tip dangerously to one side once he realized what he had almost just done.

But Law didn't fall over like he thought he would.

Instead, the dark haired doctor felt himself come into contact with a hot body, and didn't think twice about immediately pressing up against the warmth that was offered. Law wasn't sure why Kid was bothering to help him stay upright, but the arm around his waist that was holding him up said otherwise. It meant that Kid, instead of walking away, had chosen to go to his side and catch him before he fell over and onto the ground. Law barely dared to breathe at that as he attempted to get his own feet back underneath him.

He was dreaming.

He had to be.

Or imagining things.

Kid had ignored him for so long, after all. The red head had kicked Law out of his apartment when the one month time was up, not allowing for anything else to happen between them after that.

Hallucinating. Law had to be hallucinating. There was no way that-

"You're stupid. Killing yourself ain't gonna get anything accomplished." The arm around Law's waist tightened. "And you started texting me outta nowhere after so long but…" Kid trailed off briefly before he continued on in a rough voice, covering up a thin trace of embarrassment from creeping in. "If you're so desperate for it, I suppose we can argue a bit more, if you want. And you can't do that if you're dead, right?"

At that, Law began to think that revenge may not be quite out of reach as he had initially thought it would be. The dark haired doctor just wasn't sure he liked the feelings he had on the matter when Kid stayed there in front of the gravestone with him. The red head didn't speak or otherwise tease or insult Law, and just stood there with the dark haired doctor pressed to his side. Law still had the red head's jacket over his head, as if Kid wanted to make sure that he wasn't getting too cold in the rain.

Law noticed because Kid's grip was firm around his waist, and the red head was very insistent that the other not move very far away from his side. Whether to keep him from running away or finding another weapon, Law wasn't entirely sure at present.

"You're gonna catch a cold and die anyway if you stay out in the rain any longer." Kid expressed after a few minutes.

"And you won't?" Law's eyes were closed again, half lulled into a peaceful fog from the red head's body warmth.

"I'll be fine with a change of clothes." Kid grunted, not sounding overly concerned.

"And I won't be?" Law asked.

"You've been standing here in the rain for who the hell knows how long, and you tried to shoot yourself in the head." Kid's arm tightened around Law's waist. "I'm not turning you loose on your own."

"I will be perfectly fine." Law said in return. "I don't need you to tell me what to do with my life."

"Funny, I think I just saved your pathetic hide just now." Kid said. "So that means that I'm gonna do what I want with you."

"How do you figure that?" Law asked, gaining some life to him at the idea of the red head doing who knew what with him.

"You're barely standing on your own." Kid made his point by stepping away from Law, clearly showing that the doctor was not in the best of shape in the way he immediately ended up falling over again. Kid caught him and even dared to scoop him up in his arms.

"Put me down right now." Law said indignantly, even though his hands scrabbling at the red haired mechanic's shoulders for purchase.

"What makes you think you can get home on your own?" Kid asked as he tugged his jacket over Law's head and tucked the furred coat snugly around the doctor's body.

"I can." Law muttered even as he sagged against Kid's chest as the red head started to walk. Only a low laugh greeted his ears as the dark haired man began to be lulled to sleep by Kid's warmth. Funny, Law didn't know that he could be comforted by the sound of someone else's heartbeat. Before Law could think too hard on these turn of events, he began to lose consciousness, and the dark haired man briefly entertained the dark idea that Kid would dig a shallow grave and bury him alive.

It seemed like something the red head would be delighted to threaten to do to him, though with the way Kid was acting toward him at present, Law couldn't be too sure about it anymore.

-x-

Law couldn't have been passed out for long, but when he finally struggled out of the haze of weariness that had hit him in the cemetery, he couldn't believe his eyes. He was in Kid's apartment, and, after taking closer stock of his surroundings, Law realized that he was also in the red head's bed.

He was still wearing his soaked clothing, so that must have meant that Law hadn't been in the apartment for long. And then time didn't seem to matter as the dark haired doctor realized that Kid was in the room with him and at the side of the bed, staring down at him. Like he was struggling with what he wanted to do with him now that he was awake.

Law opened his mouth to say something, anything, to prevent Kid from immediately booting him out, but the red head beat him to it.

"I can't believe you tried to fucking kill yourself, you asshole." Kid said grumpily, as if Law making the attempt had disrupted his entire life and said as much. "Everything was going back to normal and then you go texting me and making trouble by making yourself out to be a victim. Where the fuck did all of that arrogance from before go? Why the hell didn't you try and find me before you got into such a damn mood?" The red head glowered at Law as if he expected answers and he expected them now.

"If you find me to be so troublesome to deal with you should have let me go through with it." The dark haired man didn't specify what 'it' was, but Kid sure as hell knew and the taller man outright growled at Law as if he couldn't find any words to respond to that. The doctor sniffed, gaining some more life to him at Kid's display. "Charming. Why I ever was interested in you to begin with, I can't imagine. What with you acting like a brute most of the time and not bothering to use words, which I have found, living with you, that you are more than capable of using." Law wasn't even going to mention the potential assassins or the kidnappers if this was the kind of response the red head was going to give him. Though the dumbstruck look he was being given right now wasn't something that Law had anticipated.

"What?" Kid sounded perplexed, and then stared at Law as if seeing him in a different light before the red head had the gall to look pissed. "Did you just fucking say that you liked me?"

"I said I had an interest." Law hedged; he felt he should shut up now, because yes, he had taken a liking to Kid, however unhealthy that happened to be for the both of them. Though Law believed that the red haired mechanic should have guessed it all the same with the way the doctor had been all over him whenever he had the chance. Or would try to, anyway, until Kid shoved him away and the red head would go to sulk in his bedroom. Law saw a gleam in Kid's eyes and wasn't sure whether to be terrified of the sight or be aroused by it, and decided that it would be best to distance himself until he knew for sure what the red head's intentions were.

"An interest, huh?" Kid suddenly grinned, and he moved forward to sit on the edge of the bed, sizing Law up like he was trying to figure out something.

"That's what I said." Law confirmed as scooted further away to the other side and eyed Kid with a sharp eye, keeping a look out for any signs of aggression. "Is there a problem with that?"

"The only problem here, Trafalgar, is that you have too many clothes on right now." Kid moved far quicker than his bulk should have allowed, and he had his right hand wrapped around Law's sore right wrist. "And then there's somethin' else."

"What would…that be?' Law made an attempt to not show that Kid's grip around his wrist hurt, but the red head clearly saw it, as the man eased his grasp to his forearm, but didn't let go.

"That this interest you're talking about?" Kid used Law's arm to drag the other man up against his side, and then wrapped his left arm loosely around Law's waist, almost pulling him onto his lap. "I think you mean that you like me and were pissin' me off 'cause of it, right?"

"You were rude to me the entire time I was in your apartment. Why in the world would I like that, let alone you?" Law demanded, squirming to get out Kid's grasp. The doctor ended up sagging when the red head let out a low chuckle against the side of his neck and slipped his left hand up beneath the front of Law's soaked shirt.

"You argued with me and you liked it. Don't lie to me. I know you did. You were fucking smiling the whole time or doin' one of those smirks of yours when you got the insult right." Kid said, right hand still around Law's right forearm as he dragged his left hand lightly up along the tanned skin, and when he felt Law shudder against him, added. "And you like it when I touch you, don't you?"

"What is your point?" Law managed to grit out without it coming out as a moan or something along those lines. "I thought you wanted me to stay out of your apartment, didn't you?"

"You don't think it was because you just decided to sit your ass in my place and not wait for an invitation?" Kid asked, his fingers pinching down on one of Law's nipples. "Come in my apartment unannounced, when I don't really know you, and decide you wanna have some fun and play with me?"

"What are you doing?" Law demanded in an indignant tone, writhing briefly as Kid tweaked his other nipple. "Eustass!"

"The fuck do you think I'm doing?" Kid dragged his left hand up to the collar of the jacket Law wore, and slipped it out in order to cup the doctor's jaw. "You fucking go and do some stupid shit, and then you act like you don't know what I'm doing, bringin' you here." Kid leaned forward as he angled Law's head enough to the side to bring him in for a kiss.

Law wasn't expecting that, and he was frustrated his own left arm could only grasp at Kid's, because the red head wouldn't let go of his jaw. And his right forearm was still being grasped and Kid didn't seem inclined to let go any time soon. Law didn't know why this was happening, but that small spark of hope was back, and with the way Kid was talking, it almost seemed as if he…

As if Kid…

"Eustass…" Law questioned into the kiss, before Kid merely deepened it to prevent questioning. Unlike the kiss Kid had given him in the cemetery, the kiss Law was currently receiving was an indulgent one intended to claim. Not to mention Kid had finally let go of his arm, but that brought another set of questions to mind, as Kid was fumbling with his belt and trying to get his pants off. Law gripped Kid's forearm in return in an attempt to halt him. "What are you doing now?"

"What do you think?" Kid let go of Law's jaw and removed his hand from beneath Law's jacket, before tugging it up insistently. "I told ya you had too many clothes on. And they're wet, so you're gonna need to take them off anyway."

"Why…the sudden change in attitude?" Law didn't fight the red head trying to remove his clothes, and even attempted to help with the undressing process even though Kid had decided to push him over onto his back on the bed and latch his mouth onto the side of Law's neck.

With a fucking growl.

Law had to wonder if it was done on purpose or if it was just an automatic response.

"Eustass?" Law gasped breathlessly at a grope to his crotch as Kid worked his legs out of his jeans. It was a bit difficult because the damp jeans were a bit tighter than they would have been dry. Which made them drag uncomfortably over his briefs and subsequently, his dick. "I thought you didn't want to see me?" Law arched up against the red head as Kid groped him again, and decided that he liked it and pressed closer, craving more.

"I...liked having someone around to cook." Kid muttered as he bit down on the side of Law's neck, seemingly with the intent to leave a mark behind before he hissed in the doctor's nearest ear. "I like having someone around to bitch at." Kid settled over Law's naked body and absently nuzzled his cheek alongside Law's collarbone. "I…wanted to hold you against me at night. It was…good." Kid grunted something, under his breath, before reluctantly adding. "It makes it warmer." The red head paused before he grunted again, this time something cross, before he propped himself up on one arm and glowered down at Law. "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you. Got it?"

The dangerous growl didn't bother Law. Kid's words confused him, because it almost sounded as if…

As if Kid _did_ want him there, even though that didn't exactly answer why the red haired man had changed his mind. He'd avoided that particular detail and covered it up with nonsense that even Law knew was mostly a lie.

With the way that Kid was attacking the side of his throat, Law expected there to be some kind of sex involved, and he was surprised when the red head backed off. And after he had dumped two or three blankets over Law to fight off the chill, Kid prowled out of the room and closed the door behind him.

But he didn't slam the door, and that said more to Law than Kid's gruff, halfhearted attempts to explain himself. Even if the bastard did leave Law alone with an obvious hickey and a painful erection.

Law ended up falling asleep as he pondered the change that had seemed to come over Kid, as the warm blankets felt so good after being out in the rain and the cold for so long.

The doctor didn't know what it meant or what to think when he had a dreamless sleep, and woke feeling more refreshed than he had been the past two months combined. Nor did Law know what to make of a pile of clothes that had been left in the room for him to wear sometime during when he'd been asleep.

-x-

Breakfast the next morning was a quiet affair, and Law still hadn't figured out what Kid was doing. That is, he hadn't, until Law found himself with his back to the nearest wall as soon as he'd made as if to go to the living room. Kid loomed over him with an unreadable expression. But as soon as Kid's hands were carding through Law's hair and the red head claimed his lips in an urgent and demanding kiss, Law realized with a jolt that he'd had Kid's attention all along. The other man had merely been in denial about the attraction, and when Law really stopped to think about it, it was really something that should have been quite clear to him.

And Kid had been dropping all of those hints the previous night, about the interest being a like in him and all that. As Law returned the urgency of the kiss, he had a thought that perhaps Kid had been prideful and felt that he had wanted to be the one who did the chasing, and had been thrown off because Law had been the one who'd been in his face and doing the chasing himself.

As soon as Kid steered Law over to the couch to lazily explore his neck with the doctor straddling his lap, Law knew that he could have his revenge after all, whether or not Kid remembered that one night stand two years ago. Could hit the red head where it hurt, and reject him outright and never see him again. That all of the talk they had had the night before. The revelations and the sort of confessions. Law could act like they meant nothing to him and then he would be free to genuinely hurt Kid's feelings even if the red head was clearly still in denial about those feelings in the first place.

There were many things that Law could do now, yet as Kid's hands roamed, and the dark haired doctor leaned in to the touch, the dark haired man wondered, for the first time in a long while, if he would even be able to go through with what he had had in mind. Because Law knew that he was never going to have a chance at real relationship with anyone after this and Law wondered dangerously, as Kid made short work of the pajamas he'd put on earlier, if he just wanted to leave things as they were.

And despite his original intentions, throw out and forget all about revenge, and instead use the chance that Kid was apparently offering him last night and today. Law would be able to have a taste of someone's affections, however unwillingly or reluctantly they were given in the beginning. And perhaps it could eventually turn into something more after being started with something else in mind entirely.

"You wanna do it here or my bed?" Kid muttered against the side of Law's throat, his hands giving the doctor's ass a light squeeze.

Law closed his eyes briefly, further conflicted when the red head suddenly held him against his chest in what was clearly a hug.

"You're so damn sarcastic and annoying. Makin' me want you to stay instead of getting you to leave for good." Kid's hold tightened. "So don't do that shit you did with the gun and the cemetery ever again. Got it? Or I'll kill you myself if you're so desperate."

Law sagged against Kid as the red head's hands started to move again.

So help him, but Law knew there was less and less of a chance for him to harm Kid in any way now. Nor even give any thought to the people who were after him for some odd reason or another. Everything was happening too quickly now, and Law was in too deep, not realizing that he had had Kid hook, line and sinker all along.


	8. An Accident

It had been a few weeks since Law had been allowed back into Kid's apartment. Despite the red head's ongoing protest against the matter, Law believed that Kid would have to eventually admit that they were now going out with one another, as there wasn't much reason other than that for the man to allow Law to sleep over and otherwise live with him in his apartment. And to add to that, Kid hadn't even minded the fact that Law now used a few of his dresser drawers and a section of the closet to store and hang his clothing he used on days he didn't need to go in to the hospital.

Law loved the way that Kid vehemently denied what was going on between them, even if he was rather aggressive in his intentions to drag Law over to the couch and grumpily hold him while either watching TV or eating meals. Perhaps it was an unconscious gesture, or perhaps Kid was still deep in denial about his feelings toward Law.

One thing the doctor had begun to insist upon now that he was back and living with Kid was that the mechanic needed to get a small dining room set, even if it only consisted of a small table and two chairs.

Kid's response had been to tell the doctor to fuck off and eat at the small island counter between the living room and the rest of the kitchen if he needed a place to set his plate. There was a bar stool there at one end of the counter for that purpose.

Law left a helpful post-it note on Kid's forehead later that night, telling him in no uncertain terms that he needed to get something, even if it was just a picnic table and plastic chairs.

A week later there was a metal table and two smaller height bar stools.

Law blew Kid at one of them that night, pleased with the offering even if the red headed mechanic said nothing of the furniture appearing in his apartment, and merely acted as if the furniture had been there all along in the small space meant for the dining room between kitchen and living room.

As the weeks passed, Law had begun to pick up on Kid's habits again and started to remember, in short order, what to expect from the other man. One thing that wasn't very hard to figure out at all was when Kid would be in a mood to be all over the doctor, and Law appreciated the obvious heads up so that he had enough time to flit away if he wasn't in the same frame of mind.

The times that Kid happened to be horny tended to happen a lot more often than the dark haired man expected them to, but as it amused him, Law didn't mind very much when the mechanic chose to make crude sexual overtures to him. Some of those encounters were more interesting and memorable than others, and one such instance happened a month later in a place of the apartment he and Kid had not yet had sex in.

The kitchen.

The blowjob in the dining room area on the other side of the small island counter didn't count.

-x-

Law was cooking breakfast one morning when he came to the conclusion, without much difficulty, that Kid was in a piss poor mood and was in need of the dark haired doctor's assistance to improve his mood.

Not that the door to the bedroom opening and shutting with heavy force didn't clue him in to the red haired mechanic's mood straight away. It wasn't that much of a guess to realize what Kid was in the mood for when he prowled out of his bedroom in nothing with boxers. It tended to mean only one thing, and that thing happened to be sex.

Other things that Kid did around the apartment were more subtle than others, and Law knew there would always be some unspoken mention in whatever the mechanic chose to do or how to act around him.

Law narrowed those actions down to a few very specific things.

Sex with the dark haired doctor, cuddling with Law whether the dark haired man wanted to or not, or Kid would want to get into an argument with him. Other actions the doctor had noticed from the man was the red head talking animatedly about his shop, getting worked up over Law being a sarcastic ass to him, and trying to decide who would cook what, and at what time. The other things Law had noted were that Kid would, at times, get pissed off and would act out with an unnecessary amount of force, whether from something that had been said to him or something that he had seen.

But back to the present and the fact that Kid had slammed his bedroom door shut with some of that unnecessary force. This particular action was one that Law had come to associate with getting laid since he'd been staying at the red head's apartment. Once Kid had finally, however grudgingly, admitted that he wanted Law to stick around.

Kid had also confiscated the gun from Law at that point in time, and the doctor hadn't the faintest notion where it had gotten too. It was just as well; Law wasn't interested in having it his hands any longer. No, he would rather have his hands on Kid right now, and that was a bit difficult to accomplish, occupied with cooking as he was.

They did need to eat after all, even if the sex they had been having with one another had been more satisfying as of late.

But since Law was still cooking, that meant that a temporary delay would be necessary. The doctor felt that it would be worth it in the end, provided the distractions not completely kill off Kid's clearly horny advances.

"I'm busy right now." Law said as soon as he saw Kid walk toward him out of the corner of his eyes. The doctor neatly stepped to the side to avoid the other man's attempt to grab him by the arm. That grasp meant that Kid was most certainly in need of some kind of release, and fucking Law seemed to help the mechanic in that aspect quite a lot. The doctor found it amusing that Kid couldn't get that release of built up tension in another manner, other than working in his shop's garage, but Law didn't precisely mind. The doctor would just rather it be when he was in the mood as well.

And not cooking.

Perhaps he would be more obliging after he'd gotten some food into him. Law had already had coffee, so the caffeine kicking in made it much easier to deal with the surly red haired man practically breathing down his neck.

"Get over here." Kid growled lowly as he shoved his hair back and secured a bandana to hold it out of the way. "Now."

"No. You will wait." Law emphasized his words by smacking Kid's questing hand with the spatula. Law went right back to fussing with the eggs in the pan once the red head's hand swiftly drew back. "I am hungry right now; not horny."

Kid clearly didn't expect that response, Law noted, because he could see brief confusion cross over the other man's face, before Kid's pale cheeks tinted slightly in embarrassment, and the red head opened his mouth to complain about how much he hated it when the doctor did this.

Not surprising, that.

"Why are you always so damn aggravating in the morning? You wouldn't leave me the fuck alone last night, and then when we finally did get around to fucking, you fell asleep." Kid made one more attempt to grab Law's arm, failed, and almost but didn't quite pout. "You're so confusing. What the fuck are you trying to pull, anyway? You wanna fuck or not?"

"I fell asleep last night because _someone_ wouldn't get to the point. I figured getting some rest, which I have been lacking as of late, would be best." Law searched for a plate, and smirked when Kid huffed and went and got him one. "I have had a few late shifts." The doctor refrained from mentioning that he'd nearly been kidnapped before he'd come to the apartment the previous evening and that had been the real reason he had conked out.

Law had pegged it as something random, for the time being. He really didn't want to think about whether or not it had had something to do with Doflamingo's black market rivals. Law had hoped that that would have stopped by now with Doflamingo making it clear what would happen to people trying to harm the doctor, and while it had, for the most part, petered out, the doctor had made sure to be on his guard, at least until he made it to Kid's apartment. Oddly enough, no one had tried to do anything while he was with Kid. Of course, Law didn't share any of this with Kid, and he turned back into the other man's expected response.

"Doesn't explain why we can't fuck now." Kid grumbled in an almost petulant tone of someone being denied something. Clearly he couldn't read the doctor well enough yet to know that the man's mind had been briefly elsewhere.

"I was hungry. And I know if you have your way, I'll be more liable to sleep some more." Law started to eat the eggs he'd put onto the plate, not offering Kid any. The dark haired doctor decided to stick to thinking about Kid, as the mechanic was the least distressing thing of the worries he currently held. "Why are you so adamant that we have sex now? I thought you didn't like me around for that reason, even though we are anyway. You even kicked me out of your bed before like you didn't want me there. Do you remember that?" Law continued to eat, hiding a smile when Kid opened his mouth, shut it, growled something, and then stole some of the egg off the plate with a fork he got from the drawer.

"I ain't gonna repeat myself. I just thought you wouldn't leave before if we fucked a couple times a week." Kid scowled when Law moved the plate out of reach. "You done so we can fuck?"

"It seems like you will have to wait a little longer then." Law set the empty plate aside. "I want more eggs."

Kid turned another interesting shade of red at the sight of Law going back to turn the stove on and the red head clearly snapped, not willing to be patient any longer.

Law wasn't surprised that Kid had had enough of his buttons pushed, but the doctor had not expected that Kid wouldn't even bother to drag him off to the bedroom to have his way with him. No, Kid hoisted Law right up onto the counter and pinned him there, and made short work of both Law's pants and briefs, and his own boxers. And, with a faint grin crossing his features, Kid removed the tank that Law had been wearing so that he was completely naked.

The doctor's expression reflected amusement as he watched his tank be tossed over the red head's shoulder. "Impatient, aren't you? You're not going to fuck me without lube or a condom, are you?"

"Fucking got it right here." Kid growled, producing said items out of the kitchen drawer nearest to where Law was sprawled out on his back.

"That's nice." Law commented as he propped himself up on his elbows and let his legs dangle off the edge of the counter. "This isn't the best place to do this, you know. It isn't very sanitary when we eat and prepare food at this counter. At least you're taking mercy on the island. I doubt it wouldn't crack under the right amount of pressure."

Kid seemed more interested in staring at Law's dick then what he was saying, though when it caught up to him the red haired mechanic grinned. "But I haven't fucked you on the counter yet."

"Something my back thanks you for." Law said wryly in return. "And are you going to get around to fucking me or can I get back to breakfast?"

Kid spread Law's thighs with his hands as he leaned in close enough meet Law's lips in a brief, rough kiss.

Law kept himself propped up on his elbows just to make Kid work harder for it and smirked into the kiss at the brief squeeze Kid gave to either of his thighs in silent retaliation. The dark haired doctor offered a teasing little smile when Kid drew back, though the red head was grinning back at him, meaning that the other man had thought of something.

"Why don't you prep yourself?" Kid asked with a leer. "I wanna watch you fuck yourself on your fingers."

"Lube?" Law asked, unsurprised by this request. Kid sure did like to watch him, though he enjoyed participating much more often than not. Law sat up with Kid's assistance, before he smirked at the way Kid suddenly held the lube right under his nose. The dark haired doctor kept his eyes on Kid's as he uncapped the lube. "There isn't much room on the counter for this."

"Shut up and do it. You got plenty of room." Kid said, helpfully slipping his left hand beneath Law's ass and giving it a casual grope. "I'll make sure you don't fall over."

"Maybe I should make breakfast if you're going to be trying to tell me what to do step by step." Law commented aloud, even if he did enjoy the way that Kid kneaded his ass. The dark haired doctor felt he might end up falling off the counter if Kid didn't stop feeling him up, but true to the red head's words, Kid didn't let him fall.

"You won't be thinkin' about breakfast when I'm done with you." Kid said with a grin, looking pleased about what he saw. "And look, someone's already hard." The red head reached over with his right hand to trail it lightly beneath Law's dick before he gave it a gentle flick. "Hurry up with the lube."

"Don't tell me what to do." Law said shortly in return, even as he lubed a tattooed finger up nonetheless and pressed in with a faint smirk across his face when Kid's attention shifted to what he was doing.

Kid could have such a one track mind at times; sometimes it was hard for Law to believe that the red haired man was actually very intelligent. The doctor had nearly died of a very rare fit of laughter when Kid admitted to going to college and getting an engineering degree before he'd opened his shop and garage with Killer. The fact that Kid had been offended that Law thought he was an idiot made the doctor console him with a very nice, breath defying make out session.

Law smirked at the memory before he redirected his attention to putting on a good show for Kid, because he did like the other man to be all eyes for him. It was rather surprising to Law to figure out that Kid was an attentive lover, even if the red head was more concerned with his own pleasure, but if he made Law feel good, Kid always seemed to have a better time.

The red haired mechanic started to absently trail his right hand along Law's right thigh, his left hand going to cup Law's left hip firmly to hold him up slightly. The red head watched with rapt attention when Law added a second finger, and seemed disappointed when the doctor removed them after a few brief strokes.

Law got more lube and then went right back to fingering himself, though he kept it at with two digits, because he knew it was sure to draw some response from Kid, who had stilled his hands on either side of his hips to watch.

The dark haired man thought that it was good to know that some things were able to be anticipated so easily.

-x-

"Want some help with that?" Kid asked after a minute had passed by, and it was obvious that the red haired mechanic was turned on by the sight of Law fucking himself on his own fingers.

"I don't know…are you sure you can multitask?" Law asked, a little breathless. "I wouldn't want you to work that brain of yours too hard before you have to go to your job where you're around heavy machinery. I wouldn't want you to injure yourself."

"Just say that you want me to fuck you hard instead of tryin' to insult me. I wanna fuck you all the same anyway." Kid informed the doctor as he stole the lube from the other man. "Better keep at least one elbow on the counter, Trafalgar."

"I doubt your fingers are enough to make me come, even if some of mine are there too." Law propped himself up on his left elbow nonetheless. "But you're more than welcome to try, _Eustass."_

"We'll see." Kid said as he dumped some of the lube out onto his fingers. A grin surfaced again. "Wanna make a bet?"

"What kind?" Law asked, pausing in his ministrations to look Kid in the eye.

"If you come from me helping you out, you'll have to hold yourself open for me so I can fuck you good and hard." Kid said with a rather lewd grin.

"I assumed that would already be the case." Law replied, unimpressed. "What if I don't?"

"Then you can go back to your breakfast and I'll go in to work without fucking you." Kid finished his suggestion with the grin still firmly in place.

"You mean I would be able to walk around without limping for the whole entire day?" Law asked teasingly. "Maybe I should just let you have at it with your fingers. I'm sure I can hold out if you do."

Kid looked Law in the eye as he got closer to the counter, and then ran his slicked fingers along Law's arm and down. Kid teased a finger in next to Law's and grinned, pleased, when the doctor's eyes squeezed shut and his breath hitched. "Feel good? Gonna come if I move it?"

"I can't feel anything if you don't." Law said in return with a faint smirk.

Kid wriggled in a second digit after the first had been in with Law's briefly, and when he added that second, Law's breath again hitched, and he made as if to try and move his fingers back to give Kid room to work. The red head stopped Law and held tight to the other man's shoulder. "You give up?"

Law narrowed his eyes at Kid before he let out an impatient huff. "You need more lube. Your fingers are bigger than mine."

Kid did as asked, because he clearly wanted to keep it going until he either cracked and wanted to get around to fucking, or Law came and the red head could get a condom and follow through on what he'd said earlier.

Much to Law's displeasure, after a few strokes and twists of their fingers, the doctor finally couldn't handle it anymore. And even more so when Kid's fingers left him and the red head's other hand wrapped around his dick, catapulting him into an orgasm.

Kid grinned as he watched Law sagged back on his elbow, breathing hard and looking both sated and completely pissed off that Kid had cheated a little bit. The red head slipped a finger back in and grinned at the way Law groaned and clenched around him. "Well, you came, so hold 'em open for me, yeah?" The red head used his other hand to give Law's nearest leg a cheerful slap.

The dark haired doctor gave Kid a very dirty look but didn't argue. Instead, he scooted backward onto the counter and with a put upon sigh, hooked his arms beneath his knees and spread himself open without a word.

Kid already had his hand on his dick and had been idly stroking it as he waited. At a 'get on with it' look from Law, the red head took his time getting the condom on and getting the lube. "Think you can keep up with me?"

Law just gave Kid faintly harassed stare as if to say the red head was an idiot.

"Just checking 'cause, you know, I'm gonna fuck you hard and fast. You don't want to fall, do you?" Kid asked, as he rested his hands on the counter above Law's shoulders. One hand went to his dick to hold it up against Law's ass, and the red head grinned. "Any requests after I fuck you?"

"Clean me up and put me on the couch." Law stated. "I have a feeling my ass will be too sore for me to make it from the counter to the couch without falling on my face. Not to mention the mess."

"Too bad we gotta use condoms. I wouldn't mind seeing you leaking with cum while I clean you up." Kid commented as he teasingly pressed just the tip in.

"You are so crass." Law drawled. "Why would I ever think that your idea of what you would do bare would be anything else?"

"Better keep that mouth of yours shut while I fuck." Kid said as he gave a shallow thrust once he was partway in. "You wouldn't want to go biting that sharp tongue of yours. Be a shame if you couldn't be a sarcastic ass to me later."

"If you actually get around to fucking me, maybe I will." Law taunted, even as he gripped his arms tighter beneath his knees at the intrusion. "Though for your information, a bitten tongue wouldn't prevent me from speaking."

Kid wasted no breath as he finished burying himself to the hilt with another thrust. Once he'd adjusted, the red haired mechanic did just as he said he would earlier. Kid went at Law with rough, hard and fast strokes that dragged out sounds from Law that Kid always seemed to forget he could make. But at the very least, Law's tune had changed as he panted and writhed in time to the thrusts, his voice anything from a low moan to panting Kid's name repeatedly.

The kitchen was going to have one very filthy counter when they were finished.

Kid grinned at the thought, even as Law finally let go of his legs to drop off the edge of the counter as Kid fucked him. It didn't matter, as the red head merely brought his hands around to cup beneath Law's hips to give a better angle to thrust.

It was nice to have counters that weren't so high. It made fucking in the kitchen an easier venture.

Kid was most certainly going to go for a repeat at some point in the near future.

Law ended up wrapping his arms around the mechanic's neck and soon began to leave a trail of kisses whereever he could reach as Kid was merciless in his quest to pound his ass into that counter.

Kid didn't last long, but at the very least, once he'd come and pulled out, he did go pad around the bathroom and clean the both of them up. Law seemed to enjoy the attention, though it could have been because Kid, while running the washcloth over the doctor, had taken the man's dick in hand and casually stoked it a few times. Kid left the kitchen counter a mess because he figured Law could clean it up later.

The red head did end up bring Law over to the couch once he was clean, and since the doctor hadn't asked for his clothes, Kid lay him out on the couch completely naked.

Law didn't seem to mind, and the red haired mechanic appreciated the view.

-x-

"Good thing you waited until after I cooked myself some food." Law commented a few minutes later, sounding very sated from where he was sprawled out naked on the couch. "Though not so much that I couldn't get up and go get a little snack. If that was the hardest you'll fuck me, then you need to work on that. I can take more than you gave me."

Kid gave a wordless snarl at that, and looked very tempted to go at Law again, and on the couch, as the doctor was already helpfully not wearing a damn thing, but something held the red head back.

Law noticed the hesitation almost immediately. "Problem?" He stretched out invitingly on the couch and raised a brow at Kid as if to get him to come over to him.

"Gotta go in to work." Kid muttered sullenly, his eyes locked on Law and watching his every movement. "Remember that?"

"I'll be in bed then, keeping it warm for you." Law said playfully, knowing it would piss Kid off.

The red head glowered at the teasing doctor before he left the apartment without another word.

It was for the best; Kid likely would have come at Law full force and fucked him as much as he could before he and Law were both exhausted messes.

The dark haired doctor waited on that couch for several minutes to make sure that Kid didn't return, before he rose, retrieved his clothes from the kitchen, and put them back on after cleaning up the rest of the way in the bathroom. And with a limp to his gait, Law went about his day, including taking care of the counter that made the kitchen smell like sex. The doctor had a place in mind to visit later that evening, before he would return to the red head's apartment.

Law fully intended to keep his promise to warm Kid's bed.

And he would do it naked, because he knew it was a temptation that Kid had a hard time overlooking.

-x-

Kid drove to work trying very hard to not think about the image of Law being in his bed when he got back home that night. It was far too distracting, and Kid didn't want the other man to be a distraction when he was trying to do his job. And envisioning a naked Law in various vehicles made that concentration very hard to manage without having to nip into the bathroom to jack off to the thought, and then be scolded by Killer for making a mess and couldn't he work one damn minute without getting off to the thought of Law?

Kid had tried to put the man out of his mind many times since the dark haired doctor had begun to stay with him in his apartment again. And each time Kid had failed, because thinking of Law's naked body was quite the distraction and Kid would sometimes realize he'd been holding onto the same tool for twenty minutes and almost, but not always, humping the vehicle.

Fuck.

Kid needed the image Law had put into his mind out of it right now. He needed to be on his game, and do a good job on a car he was going in to work on. It was for some rich client, and if the red haired mechanic did a good job, the guy was sure to come back, and Kid could use a little cushion with the money he would be paid with for the repair.

The red head's phone began to ring. Kid was grateful that the streets were near empty, which was a bit odd for the time of day, considering mornings were usually heavy with traffic, but he decided to answer the call all the same. It was probably Law, the smug bastard, to give him another provocative image to keep with him for the rest of the day. Instead, Kid got something wholly unexpected, and as soon as the unfamiliar, deep voice spoke, Kid had the uneasy feeling he knew who it was.

' _Hello, Eustass Kid.'_

Doflamingo.

What the fuck? How did he get his number? And more importantly, how the hell did he know his name? Kid cursed under his breath before he directed his attention to the person on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, what do you want?" The red head decided to get straight to the point. He knew Killer had told him to be careful with anyone who worked the black market, but Kid wasn't in the mood and this was the perfect distraction to take his mind off a naked Law.

Unfortunately, it seemed the dark haired man was the topic of the day.

' _Fufufu. You're to the point. That's good. That will make things easier.'_

"Glad I can help you with that." Kid said, though he didn't like the way the conversation was headed already.

' _I've told Law before time and again that he should move things along in his life, and it seems interesting that he chose to pursue you instead of some other goal.'_ Doflamingo laughed to himself. _'Though it gave me some time to do a little…research.'_

"Yeah? What kind?" Kid felt the stir of unease, because there was only one thing that Doflamingo could possibly be looking into, and that would be information about the red head himself. Kid didn't like it. "Though ain't it illegal to be nosing around in other people's business?"

' _I was merely doing Law a favor. I am a bit disappointed he never told me what he was up to, and since he was taking so long getting around to it, I decided to help him out and deal with you myself.'_

Doflamingo was going to what? Deal with him?

"The hell did I do?" Kid felt he should get to work faster, because he wasn't sure he wanted to think about how Doflamingo could 'take care of him.' There was no friendliness in the other man's voice and that didn't bode well for Kid and his continued health.

' _Oh, nothing you would remember, as you were drunk at the time.'_ Doflamingo laughed nastily. _'Just a little matter of you pushing someone off the road and casing an accident. I don't suppose you have any memory of that, do you?'_

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kid denied immediately, and far too quickly, because Doflamingo chuckled ominously.

' _You may not remember the specifics, but it does sound as if you know of the incident I'm referring to.'_

"And what exactly is it that you think Trafalgar was doing?" Kid demanded, not wanting to dwell on that unfortunate night years ago.

' _Didn't you know? About the person who died?" Doflamingo sounded beside himself with glee._

Kid found that disturbing more than the phone call itself.

' _You should, seeing as you had word from someone else to deal with him.'_

Kid was silent, remembering Law sitting in front of a headstone with his gun that rainy day. But he didn't understand the other part of what Doflamingo had said. Kid worked for himself; no one else. It was a laugh to think about someone trying to order him around, let alone get him to do some kind of hit…

Kid clenched the steering wheel tight as the idea sunk in.

Oh shit.

_Fuck._

Doflamingo thought someone had told him to go kill someone he knew? Was that what this call was about?

That was fucked up. Kid didn't do anything of the sort. He'd just been buzzed on his way to the club and not really paying attention to the road on his way to that club years ago. He hadn't had anyone tell him shit, and if they had, Kid would have laughed them off as not being serious. Obviously, Doflamingo thought otherwise, and Kid wondered what the fuck his background showed that made the blond haired black market dealer aka businessman draw that conclusion.

It wasn't true.

It wasn't.

' _It seems Law mentioned something to you or you saw something and made assumptions. That's good enough.'_ Doflamingo had a cheerful tone, even if his words were full of venom and spite _. 'Did you know he was planning on getting you to like him so much that he could hurt you by breaking it off for what you did to my brother?'_

Kid stilled, barely managing to hit the brakes for a red light.

"He wouldn't do that." No, that was something Kid had done to Law despite the fact that the dark haired doctor had intruded upon him and made himself at home in his apartment to begin with.

' _You hesitated.'_ Doflamingo taunted lightly _. 'Though I suppose I should thank you for making sure Law didn't pull the trigger on himself. That would have been an inconvenience for me. I had hoped at some point he'd do a little work for me and that would be hard if he were dead.'_

"Stay the fuck away from him." Kid snapped at the phone, not sure why he felt the need to tell Doflamingo off. Law never made mention of the man apart from the initial reason of why he was trying so hard to avoid him. "And quit having people shadow him at the hospital."

' _You have a lot of demands for a dead man, don't you?'_

Kid immediately scanned the area before moving on from the stoplight, as if expecting hit men to leap out of the shadows to gun him down.

Dammit, he'd been watching too many espionage movies again.

' _Good-bye, Eustass Kid. If you should happen to live, I do hope you'll give some thought to what I said. Perhaps even warn your employer to steer clear of Law.'_ Doflamingo let out a laugh and a rather ominous as he hung up.

Kid had no time to even think about what he was going to do next because at that exact moment was when he heard a horrendous screech as a vehicle plowed through the intersection, straight into the side of his without slowing.

Time became a confusing blur as Kid's car was hit, and once everything had come to a standstill after the screech of metal twisting and breaking apart. Soon after that had happened, everything snapped back into real time, and Kid immediately became aware of the pain that took over most of his senses. He wasn't unconscious, because wouldn't that have just been too fucking convenient? It hurt like a bitch to try to move, so Kid made his best attempt to hold still and breathe, even if it was coming in and out erratically. His left arm was on fire and proof to how terrible he felt; the red head had no energy left in him to scream or to whimper from the excruciating pain that lit up his entire his mind.

His vision wavering, Kid realized that something must have gouged his face, because there was warm stickiness falling down the left side of his face and further blurring his vision. Had the glass of the window shield or the driver side window hit him when it shattered?

Kid heard sirens in the distance, but it could have been a lot closer, because he was having trouble focusing on the steering wheel in front of him. He also had trouble hearing in general because his head was a confusion of noise from the impact and the excruciating pain Kid was in as his body let him know that he had been fucked over royally, and not just from being in an accident. The red head finally gave in the overwhelming agony he was experiencing and blacked out.

Kid's phone started to ring again, but it went unanswered from where it had been thrown to the passengers' seat. Kid remained unconscious and slumped in the driver's seat, his left arm pinned by the door of his car while the other injuries he received from the glass continued to bleed.


	9. Resentment and Avoidance

Law went to the cemetery that same evening, unable to stand being alone in Kid's apartment for any longer. Not when it was nearing the anniversary of Rocinante's death. Law was relieved more than ever that he hadn't done anything stupid, and that Kid, however grudgingly, had cared enough about him to check up on him and prevent him from making a terrible, irreversible mistake. Law wasn't going to the cemetery that evening with anything like that in mind. No, he was merely visiting with a melancholy air and a dozen 'what-if's' over being unable to be around to save someone's life that he really cared about.

Law was uncertain how long he stood there before Rocinante's grave, but at the very least, the sky was clear and Law was rather pleased about that, because that meant that it should be good weather for the anniversary of Rocinante's death a few days from now. The dark haired doctor felt that Rocinante would have approved of it.

So lost in thought, Law almost didn't hear the footsteps of someone approaching him. Law did, however, soon become aware of someone looming over him from behind without uttering a word. But Law knew who it was all the same, even before the other man spoke.

"I figured that I would find you here."

"Congratulations." Law responded dryly. "It must have been very difficult to pinpoint the places that I could have possibly have been."

"Fufufu. Good to know that your sense of humor is still alive and kicking."

Law raised one hand off to flip Doflamingo off without turning around.

"So unfriendly." The blond haired man teased.

"Is there any particular reason that you've tracked me down?" Law asked disinterestedly.

"It couldn't be because I'm concerned that you haven't been keeping me up to date?" Doflamingo asked, presumably with a grin. "What would have happened if some kidnapper tried their luck with you despite where you have been staying lately?"

"I doubt that you've actually been concerned about me, even considering what has been happening the past few months. You've only ever been interested in my abilities as a surgeon anyway. You've never really cared about my health and well-being as a person, like Cora did." Law's voice became hard, his gaze darting to the headstone briefly. "So try again. Why are you here?"

"You're always so blunt." Doflamingo didn't sound like he cared that Law was. Nor did the blond haired businessman react to the mention of his younger brother, who had been Law's adoptive father. "Fine. I'll get straight to the point then, shall I? I'm here to offer my assistance to you."

"You've already assisted me quite a lot by preventing those muggings and kidnappings from happening so that I didn't find myself in any unfortunate incidents because of your other line of not so legal work." Law said bitterly in return, almost turning around but stopping himself from doing so. "And was yesterday afternoon another assassination attempt?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Doflamingo teased. "I think you would sleep better at night not knowing, don't you agree?"

"That's true. I would." Law said curtly, even if it was a lie. He had a lot of sleepless nights, and even Kid had no idea about it. Law had long since gotten used to his erratic and often sleepless schedule. "I'd rather know as little as possible about what goes on in your underground business ventures in any case. I've no intention of ever involving myself in them."

"I'll get to my previous point then." Doflamingo continued on smoothly. "It actually has to do with that red head you've been playing house with. I figured out who he is. I found out recently, in fact." Doflamingo sounded like he was grinning from amusement. "I might have bothered looking into things more closely for you if you bothered to talk to me at length. I'm disappointed that you never told me that you were merely toying with him. So devious, what you had planned. I'm disappointed that you left me out of the fun for so long."

Law finally turned around to peer up at the blond haired man, pointedly ignoring the clashing outfit that Doflamingo wore. "What are you talking about?"

"I thought you would have figured it all out by now." Doflamingo appeared to be sizing the other man up. "Especially after that night you met that red head for the first time."

"Seriously, what are you getting at?" Law asked, disgruntled. "I don't care much for your mind games, so get on with it. Why bring him up?"

"Didn't you ever wonder why Eustass Kid was at that club two years ago?" Doflamingo asked with a dark laugh, like he knew something the doctor didn't. "I'm mentioning him because I came here to tell you that that I've already helped you take care of Kid." Doflamingo offered a sharp smile. "After all, he is the reason that my brother is gone."

"Apart from getting himself drunk, I highly doubt that Kid would have had anything to do with that…accident…when I chose to introduce myself to him that night." Law recalled, even now, the way that Kid had reacted when he perched on the red head's lap. It was a far cry different than the reaction two years later in the bar. The doctor hadn't expected the offer of sex to be on the table straight away, but he did enjoy how overly friendly Kid had been to him, what with happily feeling him up as they drank together before Law had led the red head over to the hotel. Law frowned; there didn't seem to be any deeper meaning to Kid being in that club, as Doflamingo was hinting at, unless the blond meant Law's inability to answer his phone that same night.

"Eustass had nothing to do with preventing me from leaving the hotel we'd been at." Law wore a guarded look. "I chose to stay with him because he was so intoxicated that I figured that he would have hurt himself if I had left him alone." Law gave Doflamingo a harassed glare. "Eustass being drunk off his ass isn't precisely a worthy reason to kill him, you know." Law looked away from those damn shaded glasses the businessman wore. "It was my oversight to not have my phone close at hand, so I didn't realize at the time that I had been needed elsewhere that night."

"Is that really what you think?" Doflamingo asked after a moment of silence had passed.

"Yes. I called you the next morning, didn't I, to say as much?" Law turned his focus back on the other man. "And more importantly, what did you do?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Doflamingo asked carelessly, wearing a grin, as he knew exactly what Law was hinting at.

"You're talking about Eustass and the idea that he was somehow being responsible for Cora being dead, which I don't believe for a minute." Law scrutinized the blond haired businessman closely as Doflamingo had done to him earlier. "Unless you have some sort of proof, that is." The doctor hoped there wasn't because he didn't want to think that Kid had been purposefully involved in that accident.

"Is that worry I hear in your voice? Do you actually like that red head?" Doflamingo grinned eerily as he moved closer to Law, a dark laugh rumbling out of the larger man softly at the sight of a glare aimed his way. "Fufufu. Very well, if it's proof you want, I'll tell you. I did some checking in to Kid's background out of curiosity, once I finally learned who you were staying with. I've found through some of my resources that Kid was already drunk when he went to that club where you found him two years ago." Wearing an even deeper grin, Doflamingo leaned his head to one side to regard Law, sunlight reflecting off his shades. "In addition to that, there was word that he'd been on a job at the time, and even as intoxicated as he already was, he was aware enough to remember it."

Law froze in place as his breath caught at what Doflamingo was implying without saying anything. No, it wasn't possible. Kid wouldn't work for anyone but himself. There was no way that the red haired mechanic would be some underground grunt who worked for one of Doflamingo's rivals. There was no way. Law was sure he would have noticed it if that were the case. But then again, when Law was at the red head's apartment, no one had attempted to go after him.

But that had to be coincidence.

Law couldn't quell the doubts, and had an even harder time trying to deny conspiracy ideas when Doflamingo began to speak again.

"Did you know that Kid had been involved in a hit and run before he reached the club that night?" Doflamingo's lips twisted. "On purpose, in fact, and he kept on going after he'd seen that the other car had gotten sent off into the ditch and burst into flames."

Law fought down panic at remembering what he had been told before about the scene of the accident that Rocinante had been involved in, because he couldn't help but wonder if Doflamingo was up to something. The doctor calmed himself before he addressed the blond haired businessman in a steady voice. "You have got to stop spinning tales." Law said, wearing an irritated look now. "Quit trying to get me to go work in your shady clinic."

"You can go confirm the story with Kid, though I highly doubt he will remember all the details, as drunk as he'd been two years ago." Doflamingo said with an out of place grin, as some of the humor had been lost in his voice. "If he's still alive, that is."

"What did you do?" Law frowned darkly at the grinning blond, before he sidestepped around him.

"I gave your red head a taste of the past. Perhaps it will jog his memory." Doflamingo said simply, as he reached out to pat Law on the shoulder as the younger man passed him by. "You'll thank me later. Who knows if he'd have gone after you himself if given the right incentive, right?"

Law said not another word to Doflamingo; he left the cemetery instead. If the blond haired man said he had done something, he would have followed through on it already, and Law needed to see if it was as life-threatening as Doflamingo had made it sound out to be. There was no way that Law could do a damn thing to prevent whatever it was that Doflamingo had rigged, and that was probably the point. Now, more than ever, Law regretted not enticing Kid into sex again before he'd left the house that day. Doing so might have prevented whatever had happened to him from occurring at all. Because Kid would have still been in the apartment with him, both of them sated by sex and-

Law halted at a phone call and answered it with a feeling of dread. He didn't work that day, so the only reason he would be called would be to…

"Yes?" Law asked.

' _Dr. Trafalgar? Are you able to come in to check on a patient post-surgery?'_

Law closed his eyes. He _was_ already too late do to anything to stop whatever had happened. "I'm five minutes away. Is it urgent?"

' _The patient will pull through, but he was unresponsive when first brought in. We wanted another doctor's opinion on the surgery. It had to be done quickly to prevent the patient from bleeding out.'_

"I'll be there in three minutes." Law hung up after hearing the confirmation, and made all haste to the hospital. The dark haired man knew that there was only one person it would be, because Doflamingo was too much of an asshole to actually taunt him about something that wouldn't happen in the immediate future.

Kid.

It had to be Kid.

But what had the hospital staff had to do to prevent him from bleeding out?

Amputation.

That was the only thing that lingered in Law's mind as he practically ran all of the way to the hospital post op rooms, though he pulled up short at the sight of long haired blond standing outside of a door.

Killer, Law recalled Kid calling the man. And the blond did not appear to be happy to see Law standing there all out of breath. Not that Law could tell, because long bangs covered the other man's eyes. But he got the gist, because Killer sounded curt and to the point when he spoke and answered Law's unasked question.

"Kid was in an accident on the way to work."

Law could tell that Killer wasn't precisely sure what to make of him, because clearly the man wasn't entirely certain about Kid's choice of bed partners.

"You're the doctor the nurse called, right?" Killer asked, indicating the door behind him.

"That's right." Law brushed past Killer, though he heard the bond's words right before he entered the room.

"Kid is not taking things well."

That was a big understatement, as Law would soon find out. Because not only was Kid pissed off and hurting, but he was angry at Law himself.

It was then and there, standing near Kid's hospital bedside, seeing the red head's left arm mostly gone but for a stump, that somehow, someway, Law could tell by Kid's expression that he knew. That the red haired mechanic knew about Law's initial plans to fuck him over once Kid had gotten in too deep. Law knew that he hadn't even so much as given off a hint of what his original intentions had been, but somehow, Kid was aware of it.

It had to be Doflamingo. The older man had to have somehow contacted Kid before the accident. It was precisely the thing Doflamingo would do to rub the salt in the wounds deeper.

And Law received the brunt of the anger from Kid as soon as the red head realized that Law really was in the same room with him.

-x-

A few hours before

-x-

Kid had briefly come to after a confusing mash of driving one minute and then being pried out of a wrecked car the next, where he'd nearly blacked out again from the pain. He had gone off into an agonized haze as he was brought to the ambulance, until he reached the hospital. Kid had been in so much pain by the time he was being maneuvered out the back of the ambulance, the haze of half awareness was gone and he went straight back into unconsciousness and confusion of where he really was.

But the red haired mechanic didn't forget the phone call from Doflamingo right before he'd gotten fucked over by a car smashing into his side of the car.

Wouldn't forget what that phone call had been about, or how the underground black market dealer had somehow mistaken him for some grunt from a rival dealer. That was fucked up and Kid hadn't been able to convince Doflamingo otherwise, so the red head had had no time to get to safety before he'd been slammed by the other vehicle.

There was one thing that Kid felt foolish for not realizing, and that was Law's little confession about how his family had died, along with the fact that someone had adopted him three years after that.

Fuck.

Law was a part of Doflamingo's family after all, wasn't he? And that was why the other man was trying to keep track of him or whatever. The reason why Law had wanted to stay with Kid in the first place, because Doflamingo wouldn't care that he shacked up with a lover.

A cover story.

That was what it had really been, wasn't it?

Kid closed his right eye briefly; he noted that he had bandages wrapped over his left, and that meant that he had been gouged by the glass in his car after all. This sucked. Kid most certainly wouldn't forget to give Law hell about all of this and punch the fucker in the face for daring to lie to him. Because that was exactly what the doctor had done, based off the way Doflamingo had reacted to him and tried to 'get rid of him', so to speak, as well as all of those things the businessman had told Kid about Law, and what exactly the doctor had really been up to.

The red haired mechanic's right hand loosely clenched against the sheets of the bed he lay on.

It had all been set up.

The entire fucking thing.

The way Law had wormed his way into his life and his bed, all with a mind to end it abruptly and tear him to pieces in an emotional way.

And Kid had almost fallen for it.

The only thing that had been out of place was Law trying to shoot himself in the head with a gun. Maybe Kid should have let him, if this was the thanks he got for saving that bastard doctor's miserable hide.

A traffic accident that Law had orchestrated with Doflamingo's help.

Just the thought pissed Kid off, but he was too exhausted to get upset about it at present, and in fact started to pass out again to the confusing sound of beeping.

But that sound let Kid know exactly where he was.

The hospital.

-x-

Kid woke with a gasp some hours later, jerking awake abruptly after a terrifying dream of being rammed between not one but two cars. The red head breathed in a sharp breath, and was too busy trying to calm down to react to a hand on his shoulder.

"Kid?"

The red haired mechanic relaxed a fraction at sound of his best friend's voice. That took care of one thing. Kid hadn't been sure how he was supposed to get a hold of Killer if he was drugged up and barely able to find a phone, let alone hold it and dial a number. Kid turned his head to look at the long haired blond, and saw that the Killer's mouth was set in a thin line. Kid figured that expression on the other man meant that the news wasn't good. Why else would Kid be lying in a hospital bed and hooked up to IVs and all that shit?

"Kid…"

Damn, even Killer didn't sound like he wanted to tell him what had happened, even though Kid had a good idea. What with being involved in a damn car accident where his car had been struck by what had felt like a semi-truck or something with equally destructive force. Kid knew that he would have been dead if the vehicle had been bigger than his, but still. "What happened?" The red head demanded of his friend, hating the hoarseness of his voice. How long had he been unconscious?

"They had you in surgery, Kid." Killer hesitated, and then continued on in a grim voice. "You'll have to take it easy. And you can't work while you're recovering." The blond shook his head at the sight of Kid opening his mouth to argue. "You won't be able to work with what happened. It'll take time before you will be able to again, provided you do as the doctor orders for recovery."

Kid was going to ask what the fuck Killer was on about when he attempted to prop himself up despite the IVs in his arm. And then he knew, because only one elbow, his right, responded to him. His left arm twitched in response and caused Kid to fall back in bed because there had been no purchase. The red haired mechanic slowly turned his head to the side to inspect his arm, not wanting to see but needing to know all the same.

There was just a stump of a left arm halfway down to the elbow, and then nothing.

Kid wasn't sure what happened next, but he was pretty sure he had flipped out and Killer had been trying to calm him down, but after that?

Nothing.

-x-

Present time

-x-

Because he had a big blank in his memory, Kid awoke feeling groggy and really out of it.

Someone had to have sedated him or something for Kid to feel like this; it was probably just as well, because he had to have torn out some of the IVs, because the crook of his right arm was a bit sore from where the IVs had been presumably replaced.

Kid grimaced as he settled as best he could where he was lying. The red head wouldn't be surprised if he had had to be sedated. He'd had to be brought under control the one and only other time that he'd been in an accident, though it hadn't been as damaging as this last accident clearly been. It was only when Kid felt a tug of something on the side of his face that he sagged against the pillow that was beneath his head and remembered the other detail he'd noticed before.

His face had gotten scratched up after all, but at least his eyes hadn't been gouged out. It was interesting to Kid how much he was drifting with whatever the hospital staff had put him on that he had trouble fixing his thoughts on any one thing. It was almost relaxing enough to make Kid forget one important thing.

What had sent him to the hospital in the first place.

So it wasn't all that surprising that Kid left that haze far behind when Trafalgar fucking Law entered the room and dared to come over to stand at the side of his bed with a troubled look. If he hadn't been feeling so shitty, Kid would have gotten up off of the bed and clocked Law for doing this to him. For making him think that he wanted more than just a fuck buddy, damn him.

And right now, Kid didn't want to see Law, and didn't want the other man anywhere near him. Asshole was probably there to gloat at him and then check out the injuries sustained. And then tear into him and break up with him or whatever he would have called what the two of them had been up to, living together. The red head didn't want that. He didn't want anything from Law right now. What he did want was for Law to leave again and never come back. Because fuck, Kid hated to think he'd been tricked the entire time from when he had met Law in that bar, and the doctor had been trying to flirt with him.

And that first fucking kiss they had had in his now sadly totaled car…

Kid sneered at Law, and despite being drugged with both pain killers and some kind of sedative, the red head snarled with what he had left in him to rebel, and it came out rough and pained.

"Get the fuck out of here. I don't wanna see your damn face ever again." Kid saw Law open his mouth to say something, a look crossing his face that Kid couldn't begin to try to describe. The mechanic bit back an attempt to make a motion with his left arm, which he couldn't, and further infuriated at his helpless state, groped around with his right to throw something despite the IVs. "I said get out!" Kid's hand let go of some bottle he'd managed to grab, suddenly too spent from the effort of telling the other man off to follow through on throwing it at him.

Not to mention he'd moved the IVs a little, and that hurt like a bitch and Kid hated to think of someone stabbing them back into the veins again.

Much to Kid's astonishment, Law left the room after hesitating only the barest fraction of a second, his features shuttering to one of complete blankness as if something had been confirmed in one way or another.

Kid waited until the dark haired doctor was gone before closing he closed his uncovered eye, suddenly feeling exhausted.

Good.

Law was gone.

That was that, then.

After months of being aggravated by that son of a bitch, after all those times of having an almost sort of, kind of relationship, and it all had amounted to nothing in the end.

That just fucking figured.

Though the lingering sick feeling had nothing to do with Kid's injuries, and the red head strove to ignore the uncertainty coiling in his gut about Law's departure. It was too similar to the time that Kid had seen him walking away in the stairwell, but this time, Kid had been unable to stop Law. But the red head had told him to go, and had meant it, despite what Kid's feelings on the matter were.

It was Law's fault that is happened to him. So it was just as well that Kid didn't want to see him again. And that was exactly what had happened as soon as the doctor left his hospital room. Kid didn't see Law during his stay in the hospital and unlike the last time the red haired man had told Law to leave, there wasn't a single text message.

Good.

That was what Kid had wanted, or so he thought it was what he had wanted at the time.

-x-

"Kid, you have to start thinking about it now." Killer urged again, not letting the hammer drop gently. This was the third time he'd tried to tell Kid that he had to start thinking about what he was going to do about his missing arm. Kid, of course, was being less than cooperative and was in fact in quite a snit since Law was no longer in his life and pestering him.

The blond haired man wasn't about to tell Kid that it was probably healthier for both men if they stayed away from one another.

"I fucking know that Killer. Lay off. It's gotta heal first before I can do a damn thing about it." Kid made a face at a tray that had been left on a table nearby. "And you have got to get me some food from a grocery store or something. I'm gonna starve if I stay here for too long."

"Your arm, Kid." Killer redirected the conversation.

Kid sullenly glared, but didn't try to change subjects again.

"And more than just your arm, how in the world are you going to afford the medical bills? I, Wire, Heat and a few others could help chip in but it will still barely make a dent. And you can't work right now." Killer's voice rose, overriding what he knew Kid's simplified answer would be. "And how are you going to be able to afford a prosthetic on top of those bills? You're going to need one if you ever want to go back to fix cars and the like. And you know you will have to go with one of the more expensive ones in order to be able to grasp smaller auto parts."

Kid was silent; the first time in a long while. He clearly didn't seem to know what to say, and despite his usual gruff manner of brushing everything off, his shoulders slumped and he stared at the sheets like they would provide an answer.

Killer ran a hand through his hair as he withheld a sigh. Damn, he hadn't meant to break his friend, but he needed him to think about the future, and not dwell on bad hospital food and Law. No matter how much the red head said that he wasn't thinking about that 'son of a bitch', Killer could tell that he was. And when Killer finally heard Kid's faint response to his earlier question, even the blond wasn't entirely sure how to help his friend figure out his finances.

"I don't know."

-x-

Kid was finally going to get out of that damn hospital, and it was about time too. He couldn't stand the thought of being there any longer. At the moment he was able to stand under his own power more or less, and Trafalgar Law wasn't in sight.

It was a good day.

Much better than others when he'd wake up in a panic and his left arm would hurt, despite there only being a stump remaining. The red head had waved Killer off over talk of phantom pain, because he didn't want to know. He didn't want to think about it. And now, as Kid and Killer were heading for the front desk of the hospital, Kid had the gnawing doubt about being let loose without being able to produce some form of payment for his stay in the hospital, and the surgery. Not to mention all of the fucking meds he was going to have to take for a time, and the physical therapy and prosthetic. It was so much that Kid's mind wouldn't even allow him to settle on how much that was going to cost him.

But it again made Kid know that if he saw Law again, he would punch the man in the face, regardless of whether he would be arrested or not.

Just as Kid was preparing himself to be hit with bills he would never be able to pay back, he was given a sheet of papers with times and a few clinics he could go to for what looked to be physical therapy. And genius that he was, he addressed the person who's handed him the paper. "What's this?"

"Follow up appointments for your arm, and clinics for physical therapy that are covered. You're also to take it easy and do nothing strenuous while you're on the medications." The front desk person pointed out a separate line and number. "And this is where you fill the prescription for the medications."

Kid was at a loss, as he was pretty damn confused that he wasn't being asked for any form of payment. So Killer, whom he should probably not give such a hard time to as much anymore, asked for him.

"What about the bills?"

Yes, what about the bills? Kid stared at the person behind the front desk, though their focus was on Killer as they supplied the answer.

"The bills have already been taken care of. As will the therapy when he goes. And when he's ready for a prosthetic, it will also be covered."

"Who paid it?" Killer asked, though his voice made it clear that he didn't expect to find out whom.

"It was paid by someone who wished to remain anonymous."

Kid didn't say a thing to that as he merely handed over the sheet of paper to Killer when his friend motioned for it. Kid also said nothing when Killer steered him in the direction of the hospital's front doors. Kid said nothing, because he was too busy thinking about the fact that Law had to have been the one who'd paid for everything. And as it was sure to have been a lot of money, Kid honestly didn't know what to think of it. He'd thought Law had it out for him, but for the doctor to go and take a load off of his mind by making him not worry about finances he couldn't pay…

What was Trafalgar thinking?

-x-

Law steered clear of Kid for the time that he was in the hospital. When the red head was out, however, the dark haired man thought that Kid would be fair game, because he was more or less healed up. And even though Kid had taken bodily harm and was now scarred because of it, Law couldn't help but continue to find Kid rather handsome, in a way. The scars running down the side of his face did nothing to deter Law from shadowing the other man from place to place. Even though Law made no attempt to speak to Kid, he made damn sure that the red haired mechanic could see him.

Even if all that accomplished was for Kid to find some reason to try and punch him.

That was new, and Law didn't fancy being slugged in the face by that much muscle. He would have rather have had Kid fuck him into unconsciousness instead. It was a much better way to use all of that muscle, and would be much more pleasurable to the both of them.

-x-

The shadowing Kid could handle; he wasn't surprised that Law would start following him around again. What did bother Kid was that the dark haired doctor was stalking him and making it a point to let Kid know that he was doing so. Most unfortunately, in these cases, Kid had no way of getting to Law in time to punch his lights out.

And when Kid got his prosthetic arm, and got used to it, the red head found to his irritation that the doctor wasn't stalking him as often. Maybe Law didn't like the look of the prosthetic, but Kid sure as hell liked it. It was nice that there had been so much technological advancement that once Kid got used to the arm, he was able to use the prosthetic as if his arm had never been amputated in the first place. Sure he had to take it off at night so he could sleep and not shift the delicate machinery in the approximation of a popped shoulder, but it was a far cry from being unable to do anything at all.

It also helped that Kid had gotten a prosthetic that resembled a machine; all metal and gears and something Kid secretly admired. If nothing else, it was a good talking point. Kid had ignored Killer's obvious eye roll at that, and had merely told the red head not to ogle his prosthetic arm so closely.

Kid had been damn proud of himself for getting his prosthetic fingers to move so that he could flip Killer off with the limb.

Going back to work some months after the accident had been great in improving Kid's mood, because it let the red haired mechanic do something that he truly enjoyed, and fixing things made him almost forget he'd been in an accident in the first place. It was only when he'd catch a glimpse of the metal like appendage out of the corner of his eye as he worked that Kid would be reminded of what he had lost. And what he would do the next time he found Law and the man stayed in place long enough for Kid to get to him.

Which happened a lot sooner than Kid had anticipated, and fuck Law for somehow figuring out the exact moment he'd put his prosthetic arm on the dresser for the night.


	10. A Dance and Reconciliation

Kid was ready to drop dead in bed he'd worked so much that day. And he would have too, if he hadn't been partially awakened by his apartment door opening and closing. Kid furrowed his brow, and then figured it could be Killer dropping by. Kid then remembered that his friend had left an hour ago, and would have more than likely waited to come back the next day if he'd forgotten to say or do something.

Meaning someone was in his apartment.

By the time the red haired mechanic's bedroom door opened, Kid found himself with Law on his bed, naked, damn him, and smirking a little before he had Kid's sweats down and off and the doctor was groaning around a mouthful of cock.

Kid twitched and hissed something out even as his legs automatically spread a little to allow for that devilish mouth to do its work, and Kid's right hand fisted the sheets.

Motherfucker.

This was what Law thought was best to do after Kid had told him that he didn't want to see him again? Hell, they hadn't even exchanged words since that day in the hospital where Kid had told Law off and the dark haired man had left visibly subdued.

But back to that hot mouth doing interesting and infuriating things to his dick.

Kid liked a good blow job as much as the next person, but having it done to someone who wanted to do an emotional equivalent of a knife in the gut? Not so much. With an effort, Kid struggled upright and gave his warning.

"I will fucking punch you in the face while my dick down your throat if you don't back the fuck off Trafalgar."

It pissed Kid off that Law just sucked harder with renewed determination.

"I fucking mean it." Kid said, clenching his right hand into a fist. Law was a fool if he didn't think he wouldn't.

Law seemed to have some self-preservation, because he pulled off of Kid's dick with a wet popping sound and smirked up at the red haired mechanic.

"You're terrible at talking dirty." Law wrinkled his nose at him. "And take a shower. You reek of machinery."

Kid clocked Law in the face, even if the smug fucker had already been moving backward to avoid it. That he didn't get out of the way both pleased and infuriated Kid, because Law could have avoided it altogether. Kid didn't know what to make of this all, so he went with what his dick wanted to do about this unexpected sneak attack. Though it happened to be Kid's mouth that got him into trouble right off the bat.

After all, Kid hadn't meant to kiss Law.

He didn't.

But since he did, he knew that they were doing this, and doing it now.

Kid reached over and dragged Law by the leg to him and crashed their lips together, tasting himself on Law's tongue on a gasp that allowed him to delve in. Kid broke the kiss after a brief exploration of the doctor's mouth, before he shoved Law back and slapped a hip. "I'm gonna get my prosthetic on." Kid reached over to his bedside table and tossed lube onto Law's chest. "Better get as much in ya as you can, 'cause as soon as I get that arm on and a condom on, I'm fucking you whether you're stretched enough or not." Tossing a foil package on the bed, Kid caught the sight of Law hastily opening the lube, and-

"Fuck." Kid griped as he hastily looked away. "You fucking jackass."

Two fingers right away and a third soon after.

"You had this all planned, you son of a bitch." Kid all but complained. He didn't need this. He already had confusing enough thoughts over the doctor, and Kid didn't need sex intermixed with it to make things more difficult.

"Less talking, more arm attachments." Law panted up at the red head, twisting his fingers in a rather desperate way and letting out a soft, obvious moan. "I want your dick in me."

Kid snarled wordlessly as he seized his prosthetic and got it into place to attach. After a few tests to make sure the arm bended properly, and the finger and wrist movements were adequate, Kid was back on the bed and rolling the condom on, eyes flaring at the sight of Law on his back, arms already around his thighs to hold himself open, and a smug, infuriating smirk on his face.

The red haired mechanic sneered in return, gripped Law, and after a hasty slick of a lube to the condom, Kid thrust in, and went hard and fast, causing Law to let go of his own legs and flail.

"Better hang on Trafalgar." Kid snarled against the side of Law's head. "I'm gonna fuck you into the mattress."

Lanky limbs wrapped tight around the red head's back and shoulders and held on for dear life.

"Eustass…" Law panted when Kid continued to fuck hard and merciless. "Slow down."

"No." Kid growled, both hands digging into Law's thighs in order to hold him in place as he continued to thrust. "Fucking following me around. Stalking me. Why the fuck don't you stay away?"

"Because you have everything wrong." Law insisted between pants. "Doflamingo didn't tell you what was really going on."

"Shut the fuck up." Kid growled, leaning over and kissing Law hard as he continued to move in short, powerful thrusts.

Law kissed Kid back fiercely, limbs tightening around the red head with each move Kid made.

Kid couldn't help but be weirdly pleased that Law came without even being touched, and by the time Kid had finished and was pulling out, the doctor had already collapsed into a boneless heap, breathing hard.

And of course, before Kid could verbally or physically dig into the man, Law went and passed out. Another thing that strangely pleased Kid, because that meant it had been a good fuck, but right now, his anger still hadn't abated. And as beating up on an unconscious person was no fun, Kid decided he would take the aggression out elsewhere. But before that…

Kid fished out a piece of paper, and a pen, and scrawled something on it and left it near Law on another pillow. Law would see it when he woke, or would roll onto it and feel the paper.

That task accomplished, Kid headed to the door to his apartment. He didn't want to think about what could potentially happen if he were to be around when Law woke up. Either hit or fuck Law were the options and the red head was concerned he would go for the latter.

What that meant, Kid didn't want to know.

Really, he didn't.

A mind was a terrible thing when it was pointing to the one thing Kid knew he shouldn't do. He would hold out for as long as he could, but he couldn't deny to himself any longer about how he really felt about Law, despite all of this shit that had happened as of late.

It was fucked up, but the feelings remained, no matter how hard Kid tried to squash them into submission by reminding himself that Law was a manipulative little prick.

Fuck him if it didn't help one bit, because Kid knew exactly what he wanted from Law, never mind the fact that it meant that the red haired mechanic was fucked up more than he initially thought he was.  

It wasn't healthy in the least bit.

Too bad Kid's logic couldn't hold on to that, nor bury the remembrance of the look Law had given him the the hospital that day.  The look that had let Kid know, without a doubt, that the doctor had had nothing to do with making the accident occur.

Kid had seen worry and then profound relief.  The mechanic had been in too much pain at the time to process those emotions that had flickered across Law's face and in his eyes and what it could mean.

And how did Kid feel about the whole thing right now?

Nothing, or at least nothing he wanted to think upon for too long.

Kid chose, as he exited his apartment, to ignore the entire matter, and he could only hope that his little note to the doctor would keep Law away from him for good.

-x-

That had been a rather satisfying if over the top aggressive fuck Law had had in a long time. It had also been some time since someone had had sex with him that could get him to come from stimulation to just his ass and to knock him out on top of that was pretty damn impressive.

It was a shame that Kid seemed to hate his guts now. At least, more so than before, when Kid had been trying his best to deny the attraction he had to Law. And Law knew all this because when he woke up, he was all alone in Kid's bed, and there was a short, to the point and clearly Kid-friendly note that had been left there for him to read.

_Stay the fuck away from me or else._

Cute.

Law supposed he shouldn't be surprised that Kid would be angry at him for what he'd been supposedly up to. It just annoyed Law that he hadn't yet been able to explain himself because Kid wouldn't give him an inch to do so. And that punch to the face, while not as damaging then had he had it hit him full force, still hurt quite a lot. As Law iced his cheek, he cleaned himself up and put his clothes back on.

Thoughtful of the red head to not hide them or otherwise make them unwearable.

The dark haired doctor dumped the ice in the sink, and then locked himself out of Kid's apartment. While the note stated clearly to stay away, Law knew that he couldn't. And he wouldn't. Not until he got it through Kid's thick skull that his mind had been changed the longer he'd been around the red head. Especially when Kid had gone to him in the cemetery in the rain, and disarmed him with the gun he'd absconded from the red head.

Law strode with purpose down the sidewalk away from Kid's apartment. There was something he had to take care of right now, before he even began to think about confronting Kid face to face again at some point.

An hour later and Law was in Doflamingo's office, and speaking to the grinning blond.

"Stay away from Kid."

"Ah, still like your red head even though he won't have anything to do with you? So sweet. Do you actually like him?" Doflamingo teased. "That's not like you." Seeing Law about to speak again, and probably snark him to death, Doflamingo spoke over the doctor. "Very well, I'll leave him alone. But only if you will work on call for me and work three nights a week at the clinic I have in the underground."

"Only when I'm not busy." Law said after a moment of giving that thought.

"Then you have my word I won't bother your red head again."

There was something that didn't seem to add up, but since it was what Law wanted, he dismissed it for now. It couldn't be that important. Doflamingo was probably just being his weird self, as evidenced by the fashion disaster that Law had walked in on.

Smug son of a bitch had to be doing it on purpose. He knew Law hated his clothes on good days and with the way Law dressed in blacks and yellows and dark blues, Law figured Doflamingo got off in some twisted way to dress as brightly and obnoxiously as he could.

Bastard.

But with that taken care of, all Law now had to do was figure out how to get Kid to hold still long enough for him to have his say.

If Kid wanted him gone after that, well, Law would figure out what to do if it came to that. But the dark haired man refused to leave things as they were now, on false impressions. It bothered him for some reason, so Law would have to find an opportune moment to get Kid to listen to him.

He waited for a few weeks, and finally, an opportunity came up.

That Kid was the one to reach out to him had been a surprise, but Law surmised that he too had some questions of his own.

-x-

Law was enjoying some quiet time at the end of his shift one evening when he received a phone call from a number he didn't ever expect to hear from again. Law answered it as if it hadn't been weeks since he'd last seen Kid. "Good evening, Eustass. Do what do I owe the pleasure of your call? I thought you didn't want to speak to me again?" Law let his voice drip heavy with sarcasm. "Or did you need to have angry sex again and pound me into a wall afterward?"

' _As fucking rude as ever, aren't you?'_ Kid's voice grumbled from the other end of the line. _'I couldn't get anyone else to go drinking with me, and I have to have someone with me now when I do.'_

"And you thought of me. How very sweet of you." Law said in a falsely cheerful voice. "It's so good to hear that you think you can get drunk around me and think I'll keep you out of trouble."

' _If you're gonna be an ass about it, then just say no.'_ Kid said sullenly.

"I didn't say no, did I?" Law let that sink in.

' _Then you'll meet with me at a bar?'_ Kid must have really wanted to get smashed if he was resorting to calling Law.

"Where?" Law tried to keep a pleased smirk off his face, because he knew the other man might pick it up in his tone.

' _The local one down 5th. Can't go out of the city for a drink right now.'_ Kid wouldn't say why.

Law wondered if the cops got a hold of the red head recently. Maybe that was why he'd resorted to agreeing to meet up with him. "I'll be there in a half hour. I'm getting finished with work now." The dark haired doctor smirked over the fact of Kid hanging up without a response.

-x-

Law arrived at the bar, and when he did not see Kid among the people who were there, the doctor smiled bitterly. He should have known better than to think that he would be able to see Kid. Clearly the red head was toying with him, and probably was still at home or at work getting a good laugh at his expense.

When asked by a few giggling women in a corner of the bar to do an impromptu dance, Law declined, at least until they bought him drinks and got him liquored up enough to not give a damn what he did that night.

So Law let the women lead him around in swaying circles, sometimes just bumping into one another and getting a laugh out of one person's lack of balance due to the alcohol. Law felt relaxed enough to just dance a little on his own, not caring with the alcoholic haze of his mind that he was basically just swaying from one foot to another and pretend dancing with someone.

Law only started to become more aware of what he was doing when the women started to murmur, and then, still giggling, went off together, leaving Law alone. The doctor didn't know what to make of that, until he had two arms wrap around his waist and tug him backward up against a nice warm body.

A nice, warm, and _very_ muscular body.

Law vaguely hummed something along to the music and figured he had too much to drink if he didn't outwardly react to someone grasping him. The doctor glanced down in any case in order to confirm what his drunken mind had already somehow figured out for him subconsciously.

A metal-looking, prosthetic left arm.

"Hmm, are you going to dance with me, Eustass?" Law slurred, and decided that however well-intentioned and friendly those women from before had been, he had clearly already had too much to drink. Law didn't wait for a response from Kid and resumed his odd swaying motion.

"I don't think I've seen you this drunk before." Kid muttered against the side of the doctor's neck.

"You weren't here." Law said matter of fact, even as he pressed backward against Kid in order to get the red head to join in on moving along with him. "So I had some drinks those women offered to me."

"You could have left." Kid muttered, even as he swayed along with Law's not so coordinated movements.

"Then I would have missed you." Law said somberly.

Kid was quiet a moment, even though his arms had tightened around Law's waist.

"Keep moving." The dark haired doctor reached back and jabbed him in the side. Law heard a growl and suddenly found himself turned around abruptly to face the red haired mechanic, though the doctor's head chose that moment to drop against the other man's chest.

"Hello." Law said to Kid's crotch, as it was currently what was in his sight. Suddenly, thoughts of sucking that nice big cock sounded like the best idea in the world. "You come often?"

"Shit, you really are drunk, aren't you?" Kid asked, sounding like he was about to laugh his ass off as he drew Law back from him.

"Hello." The doctor repeated, his greeting directed to Kid's forehead this time. Law needed to be fair and address the red head's whole body, even if his drunken mind thought that either a blow job, or Kid fucking him in the bathroom of the bar and even in a car would be fantastic. The whole fact that they had been avoiding one another and all seemed to be unimportant for the time being.

"Hello, yourself, Trafalgar. Damn, you're going to be all mad about this when you're sober, ain't ya?" Kid asked as he steered Law over to one of the booths in an out of the way corner of the bar.

Law refused to sit down, however, and instead grasped Kid's wrist, heedless of the red head flinching back from the doctor grasping his prosthetic.

"Want to dance first." Law insisted, and even helpfully started moving again.

"Fine." Kid said with a sigh, even though he grinned. "But just one song, and then you're gonna sober up and get all snarky at me and say you didn't mean to do all this."

"Less talk and more dancing." Law insisted, moving in front of the booth in a bizarre sway, until Kid drew him up against him and they just did an approximation of a slow dance.

When the music changed over, Law drew away and looked up at the red haired mechanic expectantly.

Kid furrowed his brow until he figured it out, uttered a soft 'fuck' before he dragged Law back up against him and kissed him.

Law clung to the red haired mechanic and moaned something into the kiss, before he suddenly found himself being settled into a booth, and a glass of water found its way in front of him.

And some chips.

"Drink up." Kid said as he settled in the booth across from Law.

Law did drink the water given to him, but first he had to join Kid on the other side of the booth and sit on his lap before he decided to start drinking. The more the dark haired man drank and the more time that passed soon made Law start to come out of his drunken state, enough so that he slid from Kid's lap to the booth itself.

But he didn't move away from Kid's side.

Law did know one thing; he wasn't going to drink that much around Kid ever again.

-x-

Kid entered the bar late, which had been a pain in the ass and the red head had hoped that Law hadn't wandered off, thinking he'd brushed him off. But as soon as Kid had seen him in one corner of the bar, swaying a little from side to side with a few giggly drunk women who wanted to chat him up and do a slow dance with him to the crappy music in the bar, Kid found he didn't like that. He didn't like that at all, and kid knew that at the time he had been angry as well as jealous at the sight. The sight of Law doing the bare minimum of a dance with complete strangers as he just seemed to just go with the flow had bothered Kid greatly.

The red haired mechanic hadn't liked it, at all, so he'd decided to go and let Law know that he was there.

Kid hadn't, however, expected that searing kiss after the terrible dancing the two of them had done. And now, they were at a table and drinking, which would have been a good way to relax, had Law not opened his mouth.

"I like the new shirt. It leaves little to the imagination."

Kid had temporarily forgotten how much of a sarcastic asshole Law was, when sober, and the man was still right next to him.

Dammit.

Kid should have sat at a stool. He could have fended that hand off his thigh more easily, not give Law more reason to keep on after him. Eventually Kid gave it up a as a lost effort and focused on his beer as Law's right hand settled over his left thigh after giving it a brief squeeze.

Kid looked the dark haired doctor over before snorting. "And you say I wore something that left little to the imagination?" Kid indicated Law's tacky shirt. The red head's own tank top did fit his form; showing off his muscles, but it didn't have any words splashed over the front of it. Law's shirt, however, read _; If you can read this, then you should suck this._ There was even a helpful arrow pointing down.

"You wear that just for me or anyone you're trying to pick up?" Kid snorted as he went back to his drink. He pointedly tried not to think of the women that Law had been dancing with.

"Just you." Law confirmed, as he flagged down a waitress, and got some more water. "Now what's this about not going out to drink on your own?"

"Cops." Kid said dismissively. He guessed that they weren't going to talk about Law being drunk and was being proven correct. "And Killer. Both of 'em got all up in my face after I walked down the street naked and intoxicated a couple of weeks ago."

"Shame I didn't get to see this intoxicated walk." Law plastered himself to Kid's left side at that, moving the prosthetic arm out of the way and over his shoulder. "It must have been quite a sight."

Kid snorted again, and wave for a beer to be brought over. The red haired mechanic didn't feel much other than the sensation of what was left of his arm, but didn't move away from where Law had draped the arm. Kid wondered why not, and then promptly decided to not think about it.

Law drained half the glass of water he was given, before he sipped it thoughtfully and then sagged against Kid wearing a smirk. "I've been lonely all by myself in bed."

"Oh fuck _off_." The red head knew this was going to happen at some point. "You are not. You probably jack off to the thought of me you fucking weirdo." Kid griped, downing more beer as if he needed to be as drunk as soon as possible to deal with Law properly.

"Sometimes. Do you?" Law asked it causally as if Kid didn't just ask if he got off the mere thought of him.

Kid didn't know what gave him away, but he must have done something, because Law turned his head to smirk at him, and then reached up with his hands to direct Kid's face to crane over to look at him.

Oh, fuck.

Law was giving him _that_ look. The one that meant he wanted Kid's hands all over him that instance, regardless of where those hands happened to wander. This made the red head wonder if Law even remembered what they'd been up to when the dark haired man had been drunk a few hours ago. The hangover the doctor seemed to have, as well as all of the water, should have at least let Law knew he'd had alcohol.

"Eustass…"

"I can't have any public indecency for the rest of the year." Kid warned, because he was fairly certain that if he didn't get his hands on the dark haired doctor, then Law would be more than happy to get his hands into his pants and give him an unseen hand job beneath the booth's table top. But Kid didn't want to risk it.

"Hmn…that _is_ too bad. It would have been fun." Law paused before he breathed against Kid's lips. "But this should be fine, right?" Law kissed the red head briefly, before he broke the kiss to trail his right hand along Kid's scarred left cheek. "Does it hurt still?"

Kid reached up with a hand to stop Law's, and directed both the dark haired man's hands back to his glass of water.

"Sometimes." Kid admitted after a moment, and damn himself for letting his prosthetic left arm drop to behind Law's back to hold him snug to his side. Not that the doctor seemed to mind, the smug son of a bitch, as he just snuggled closer.

There was silence for the next several minutes as they drank, and then the atmosphere, for whatever reason, made something click in Kid's mind. He remembered something similar like this happening the first time he had met Law, when the other man had damn near gotten into an accident by hitchhiking back to the city. But there was something else. Something from a longer time ago. There was another memory before that meeting, and it finally clawed its way to the surface.

Law.

He'd met Law before that one day, two years previously. Kid blinked, left arm tightening around Law at the thought,

Son of a _bitch_.

Law was the stranger that he'd had that drunken, exciting one night stand with.

"That was you two years ago." Kid said out of the blue.

Law wriggled away from Kid's side enough to lean his head up to meet the red head's gaze. "You remember?"

It just figured that the dark haired doctor somehow knew exactly what it was that Kid was referring to.

"What the fuck was that about then? Acting like you knew me in that bar months ago and you remembered me, right? Kid glowered at the dark haired doctor. "You didn't think to mention that fucking little detail to me did you?" This was kind of humiliating in a way, because damn the red haired mechanic felt like a fool for not remembering someone like Law.

And Law merely gave Kid a calm look and then an indifferent shrug as he stared at the water glass in his hand and not Kid. "I had planned on getting revenge on you for that night, because it all but ruined my life. Had it not happened, I would have been able to avoid overtures for my surgical skills to be…on call, shall we say."

Kid's glare intensified. He wasn't saying a damn thing until Law finished explaining himself.

"That night, taking care of you…I had been getting calls. Calls for help." Law let go of the glass and stared at nothing. "I lost someone important to me because I didn't know I was needed. And now all I can do is go to his grave and wonder what could have happened had I gotten there in time. Would it have made a difference?"

"That headstone you were sitting in front of?" Kid asked eventually. The day you almost shot yourself with my gun was left unsaid, as Kid tightening his prosthetic around Law's back to hold him close was indication enough to what he was thinking about.

Law nodded once; it was explanation enough without bringing up the gun.

Kid wasn't sure what to say, and then finally just stuck to what he was comfortable with.

"What are you gonna do about things now? Because hell if you're sneaking in my apartment randomly without my say so." Kid growled his next words while looking Law in the eyes. "Probably move all your shit in without me knowing it." Kid sneered and jerked his head in the direction of the bar's front doors. "Though you could just leave."

Law smirked, as expected. "I'd rather stay."

Kid's anger had all but left him after he'd placed a call to Law earlier that evening. The red haired mechanic grumbled a few choice words before shaking his head. "You are strange, Trafalgar. Wanting to stay with someone you had a one night stand with, and then got threatened in a car years later with a gun to the head. You're fucking weird."

"No more weird than yourself for wanting me to stay." Law returned.

"I never said that." Kid grumbled, but didn't try any further denial than that.

"This says otherwise." Law said simply, and leaned back to indicate and show to Kid that the prosthetic hand had reached around Law's waist to loosely grasp the doctor's left hand.

"Fuck."

-x-

It was nice that everything had settled down, and that the misunderstandings, while still not entirely cleared up, had nonetheless allowed Law to go over to Kid's apartment without being met with hostility.

In fact, Law had been able to stay the night more than once. A bonus he hadn't expected to happen for at least another year.

But one morning, when Law woke up with Kid sleepily draped around and over him, the dark haired man decided he needed to go pay Doflamingo a visit. Something randomly popped into his head at four in the morning and he hadn't slept since.

Disentangling limbs, Law was dressed and out the door within the hour and showed up at Doflamingo's home at seven in the morning, and found that the blond was awake, and it pleased Law that the other man was not in flashy obnoxious colors, which meant that Doflamingo, for once, hadn't expected to see him. And with the man likely thrown off, Law said it before the older man could address him.

"I find it odd that Cora would just randomly leave home late one night, don't you think it's strange?"

Doflamingo, once he got over what little surprise he had of seeing Law there before him, lounged comfortably in his chair that he was seated on. "It is. And I may have told Roci that you might have been in trouble. I hadn't expected for him to leave the house so quickly though."

"Why?" Law asked flatly.

Doflamingo was quiet for a moment before he rolled a shoulder in a shrug. "I figured you might show up if he got a little beaten up. I was still adamant about you helping me with my underground clinic at the time." Doflamingo waved a hand, though his expression was troubled, even with the glasses on. "I just never anticipated that my brother would get himself into such an accident. Then again, he has always been a klutz."

"Kid didn't do anything?" That was the important thing Law wanted to know, and the dark haired doctor wanted to know now.  "I thought you said he might have worked for one of your rivals at the time?  That wasn't true?"

"He did clip Roci's car, but no, he didn't directly cause the accident." Doflamingo's tone made it clear that he was not going to elaborate, despite the fact he had told the doctor otherwise before.

"I will only go to your clinic once a month." Law turned away, rather displeased that, for once, Doflamingo's contacts had gotten their information wrong. And it had nearly cost Kid his life. "And only when I feel like it. You will continue to leave Eustass alone." The dark haired man took the eerie laugh that followed him out of the room as answer enough.

-x-

As soon as Law was out of sight, Doflamingo shook his head and spoke aloud. "You are drawing things out, especially if you want to let him know that you're alive."

Rocinante, who should have been dead, came into the room and fell over and onto another chair. He threw his older brother a look. "If you hadn't made that red head have that accident, I would have told Law."

"When will you tell him?" Doflamingo questioned.

Rocinante tapped the arm of the chair. "When things have settled down." The younger blond fixed Doflamingo with a look, half exasperation and half disbelief. "I still cannot believe that you put a headstone with my name on it in the cemetery when I hadn't even died. I hate how distraught Law would get whenever he went to see it. I have seen him sitting there for hours on end, not staring or thinking a damn thing, Doffy."

"But because of him not taking an interest in what I was doing in the background, he no longer has to worry about people trying to kidnap him. Not that he seems to be remembering that it was a possibility, now that he's cozying up to Kid again."

"Then you figured out who was doing it?" Rocinante questioned.

"Yes, it was the same person who gunned down Law's family. It seemed that he had been under the impression that Law had died as well."

"The mugging in the park." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, our mastermind realized who Law was after he'd lost out on quite a payout because a patient hadn't died, and decided he wanted to finish what he started. Not that Law made the connection and I have no intention of telling him of it." Doflamingo replied as he settled back against a cushion. "I have confirmation from a secondary contract that the man is no longer an issue." Doflamingo caught the look thrown his way by his brother and grinned. "I'm not telling Law. Brat wouldn't believe me anyway, even if he might have made the connection anyway."

Rocinante shook his head wordlessly.

"Law is all right, for the most part, and you managed a miraculous recovery." Doflamingo stated with a grin as he changed topics. "You've been conscious for a couple of months now, remember?"

Rocinante ignored his brother to stare at the door Law had left through, wearing an anxious expression. "I hope he won't be mad at me."

"More like he'll be furious with me." Doflamingo said with a snort. "For not telling him that you were actually in a coma and not dead."

-x-

Kid woke briefly when Law got into bed and wrapped his limbs around him and held on tight. The red head said nothing, merely enjoying the press of skin to skin. Kid sleepily wrapped his right arm around Law in return but doesn't say anything, because it appeared as if Law were more interested in sleeping.

Or, at least, that was what it seemed like, until Law's fingers started to trace along, and Kid figured the doctor wanted to play.

He was game for that.


	11. Epilogue

One year later…

-x-

Kid worked away in the garage of his and Killer's shop, and thought about the surprising turn of events that had somehow led him to dating Law.

It was bizarre, considering the man had forced himself into his apartment and was a nuisance to begin with.

The accident with the car had driven a brief wedge between them, but as soon as Kid figured out at that bar that Law had nothing to do with what had happened, as he'd felt he'd realized alter on, the mechanic had, however grudgingly, allowed the doctor to see him again. Provided the smug bastard didn't just let himself into his apartment like he owned the place.

Considering how much the man made, it wouldn't be surprising to Kid in the least bit if he could have bought a larger home. Instead, Law seemed to be content in the one bedroom apartment of Kid's.

Kid had no idea where this relationship with Law was going to go from here on out, but after all of the initial snags, Kid had to admit he really did like the doctor around. Even if he was a sarcastic asshole who loved to needle him at every given opportunity. But Kid wouldn't change anything in their strange relationship, as Kid didn't want to go through the trouble of tracking Law down again. Or even bother trying to find another person to have a relationship with, since Law seemed to have wormed his way into his life without Kid realizing it at first.

Though Kid had felt the need to lay out some ground rules, most being where it was acceptable to fuck, when he and Law had gotten off in Killer's home in the bathroom. Since the long haired blond had made it clear that he would not tolerate any sexual acts in his home, Kid had stuck to mainly his apartment, or, on the rare occasion, the hospital when Law was on break.

Of course, Law had merely smiled at Kid as if he weren't about to keep those boundaries that had been set.

And today, it seemed, Law was about to let Kid know how much he wanted to see him that day.

Kid hadn't expected Law to jump him at work, but as it had been a matter of time before the doctor would try, Kid wasn't all that surprised.

"Working hard, are you?" Law questioned as he opened the door to the garage.

"Of course. What, you think I sit on my ass all day or something?" Kid asked, as he watched Law come into the garage and sidle up to him wearing a smirk and that damn tank with the skeleton hand flipping everyone off.

"Maybe. I did see you snoozing at the front desk of your shop one day." Law said, as he came to a halt next to where Kid was kneeling.

"That right?" Hell if Kid could remember. He was more focused on the motorcycle right now, at least until Law plucked the wrench out of his hand. "I am working, ya know."

"Surely you can take a brief break?" Law said tonelessly.

Kid looked away from the bike and up at Law, who was twirling the wrench and giving him a faintly amused look. The red head sighed. "I wanna finish this, but come here."

Law set the wrench aside as he dropped down to the ground in front of Kid, and made a pleased sound when the mechanic sat on his ass and impatiently pulled Law onto his lap.

"Eager, aren't you?" After a few cursory kisses and a brief bout of necking, Kid let out a sigh and gripped Law's shoulders to pull him away. "If yout can wait 'till I'm done, I'll fuck you here."

"Hurry up." Law breathed as he slid off of Kid's lap and out the door that led to the front of the garage.

Kid was bound and determined to finish the work he had on a motorcycle so that he and Law could engage in something interesting then and there. At least, the red haired mechanic was trying to do a good job on the motorcycle and finish in good time. It wasn't until he heard something unexpected a half hour later that he halted what he was doing altogether.

Law had just let out some kind of strangled sound, as if he had somehow been hurt.

Even if Kid found Law aggravating and sarcastic on a good day, the red head wasn't going to stand for someone roughing him up. Kid clenched his prosthetic hand around a wrench and prowled to the entrance to the garage, ready to crack some skulls, when he found Law crying in front of some blond haired man that resembled Doflamingo.

But back to the fact that Law was crying.

Crying, for fuck's sake.

What the fuck?

Kid was more than willing to beat up the blond haired man that was causing Law to act weird. The mechanic had never seen Law cry; not once. It was just so wrong that Kid felt he needed to get the source as far away from Law as was possible. And that was when the doctor chose to raise his head in his direction and wave him off wordlessly. Kid stopped where he was, but he didn't let go of the wrench. The red head watched the conversation being whispered before him and bristled just a little bit when the blond haired man reached out to ruffle Law's hair in a fond way.

Law, in return, raised a forearm to wipe away the tears, before he murmured something, and then turned and headed back to Kid.

"What the hell was that about?" Kid wondered as Law halted alongside him.

"He's…the one I thought had died three years ago." Law shook his head, and watched silently as the blond left the garage and closed the door behind him. With a slightly mischievous look, Law went over to inspect the motorcycle that Kid had been working on. "Are you finished here?"

Kid was still processing what Law had just told him, and finally snapped when it caught up to him. "What the fuck?" The red head stomped over to Law. "Do you mean that all of that damn bullshit with you following me around and not getting the hell out of my apartment was for nothing? Trying to get me to like you and then considering fucking me over after that? All of that shit, over someone who hadn't even _died_?" Kid proffered his metal prosthetic limb beneath Law's nose in outrage. "I lost a fucking arm for nothing?"

Law simply stepped away to rest a hand on the seat of the motorcycle as Kid loomed up after him, and stared at the red head patiently.

"You gonna deny that I went through hell for nothing?" Kid grumbled, as he gave the dark hared doctor leaning against the motorcycle a nasty glare. "All because Doflamingo thought I was some fucking grunt for a rival? When his brother ain't even dead?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say it was entirely for nothing. Things worked out in the end, didn't they? We have each other now." Law smirked at the scowl that appeared on Kid's face. "Admit it. You enjoy having me around."

"To bitch at and to fuck." Kid grumbled, though he was now considering where Law was and what he had fantasied doing to the man in his garage. "And to help pay the bills."

"That's what Killer said." The doctor drawled, even as he stepped away from the motorcycle to pull his tank off and toss it aside. "And right, I'm sure that is the only reason. That's why you take every opportunity to cuddle with me on the couch." Law said blandly. "It must all be a ruse then, so that you can get me into your bed."

"Shut up." Kid growled, even though his eyes were riveted on the man in front of him.

"Are you going to act wounded or are you going to fuck me?" The dark haired doctor asked dryly. "You've been dying to do it on or around a motorcycle, right? You make your intentions very clear, you know, with the way you look at me like that."

"And what look is that?" Kid encroached on Law's personal space as he dragged the other man down onto the ground and settled over him. The mechanic lightly nipped the side of Law's throat, and didn't let the doctor answer the question as he replied to the motorcycle one Law had mentioned. "I was getting' around to it."

"Good." Law stated as he reached his hands up to dig through Kid's hair to drag him down into a kiss.

-x-

Outside of the shop, Rocinante heard Law and Kid's voices, and was clearly upset over the fact that his adoptive son was having sex with someone. "What if he hurts him?"

Doflamingo was too busy laughing over the fact that Law couldn't wait, though he did have a hand on his brother's shoulder to hold him back as he spoke up in what he thought would be a reassuring way. "Law will be fine. Brat probably does it a lot anyway now that Kid is letting him stay overnight with him all the time now."

Rocinante's expression made it clear that he didn't think so, and the blond haired man continued to be anxious and worried over the sounds issuing from behind the shop's closed garage door.

-x-

Half an hour later, Law and Kid both exited the shop, both their clothes in disarray. The dark haired doctor was limping, and Kid was wearing a particularly smug look. At least until Rocinante swooped over on Law and hugged him, clearly distraught.

"Law! Are you all right? You're not hurt are you?" Rocinante tossed Kid an accusing glare before the blond focused on his adoptive son again. "And why in the world are you doing that in such an unsanitary place?"

Doflamingo cracked up at the sight of Kid bristling and the way that the red head was clearly not pleased with the way that Rocinante was clinging to Law in such a distraught way. The older blond grinned as he waited to see where this would go, and grinned even more widely at Law's words.

"Don't worry, Cora. Kid's been fucking me in far more sanitary and comfortable places." Law explained patiently, as he patted Rocinante's arm reassuringly. "Oh, and by the way, don't sleep on the couch in Doflamingo's bedroom."

"Brat." It was Doflamingo's turn to scowl as he lost his grin. "You fucked on my personal couch?"

"Yes." Law said with a smirk. "You weren't around to talk to, and as I was in the mood..." The smirk deepened. "It was quite dirty."

Kid grinned appreciatively at that as if remembering that particular incident.

Rocinante wordlessly let go of Law to cover his face with his hands as if mortified that the dark haired doctor could be so sexually deviant. "What happened to the Law that I knew?"

"Still here." Law said reassuringly as he wandered over to Kid and grabbed him by his prosthetic arm. "I just have what I want now." The doctor beat a hasty retreat with a grinning Kid in tow as Rocinante switched to trying to prevent his brother from pursuing them over the state of his couch.

"That couch cost me a fortune, you shitty brat!"

Law lifted his free hand to flip Doflamingo off without looking at him.

"Where are we going?" Kid asked, not particularly concerned about the furious businessman making as if to give chase.

"Your place." Law panted lightly as he ran. "I'm not done with you quite yet."

"You want to fuck some more?" Kid wondered aloud, and made a funny sound when Law groped his ass and gave it a squeeze.

"Yes, and I think I'd like to change things up." Law dared to pat Kid's arm. "Now move faster, before Doflamingo catches up to us." The dark haired man demanded.

Kid scooped the dark haired doctor up and made a run for his apartment, and murmured in one of Law's ears. "We'll find out who tops who later."

Law turned his head to kiss Kid and then smirked as he patted the red head's cheek. "Go faster."

Kid retaliated with a quick squeeze to Law's ass but was still grinning. "Demanding prick."

-x-

Two hours later, and Kid was curled up on his bed, exhausted, and had a smirking naked Law in bed with him.

Who knew that Law would have ridden his dick so hard that he passed out from over stimulation? It appeared as if the red head could still be surprised by the other man. Only, Kid was the one grinning a few hours later, even if Law was sated and pleased as well, when the red head had the stamina to go again.

"Are you going to take the prosthetic off?' Law questioned, as soon as the two of them could move again.

"I should but someone got my other hand dirty." Kid grumbled.

"One moment." Law slid off the bed and limped to the bathroom, and returned, proffering his hands to show he cleaned them. "Tell me how to take it off."

Kid pointed out what Law had to do without words, and as soon as the arm was gone, tried to get Law to lay on his right side.

And just to show that he still wouldn't listen to subtle orders, Law curled against Kid's left side, and pressed a brief kiss to what was left of Kid's arm before resting his head on his chest.

"I can't hold you like this." Kid said after a brief pause.

"I know." Law said simply. "I wanted to hold you instead." The doctor draped his left arm over Kid's chest as if to emphasize that.

The red head absently rested his right hand over Law's arm to trace the doctor's tattoo on the man's forearm, and said nothing for the longest time. "You did that on purpose." Kid eventually said aloud, as if just realizing that the other man had goaded him into more sex by trying to wear him out first. The mechanic didn't seem to know what to think of Law wanting to, well, hug him, essentially, stead of vice versa. "You lookin' for me to leave you here and sleep on the couch for the rest of the night?"

Both men knew it was an empty threat, and the doctor chose to call him out on it.

"And yet you're still here, holding onto my arm." Law pointed out with a not so innocent smile. "You know you would have kicked me out if I had tried to do that to you before, don't you?"

"Yeah, maybe. But you know…" Kid rolled over onto his side so he could get his right arm around Law's waist in order to draw him up to his chest. "I ain't gonna go anywhere now." Kid muttered as he briefly pressed his face against Law's hair.

"That's fine with me." The doctor said. "Now that I have you where I want you."

"Between your legs?" Kid taunted with grin.

"I'm too worn out to do anything else right now." Law slapped the red head's chest but smiled as he did it as he rested his arm over the red head's waist again. "But yes, that too."

"Gotta have the last word, don't you?" Kid questioned.

Law just smirked in an infuriating way.

Kid rolled his eyes and decided that now was a good a time as any to kiss Law. And it just so happened that that was exactly what the dark haired doctor had wanted. But that was perfectly fine with Kid, because he wanted it as well.

Law was a great kisser; so no complaints there. And then the man had to go and make things awkward.

"Do you love me, Eustass?" Law asked suddenly.

Kid also decided that it was time to try to smother Law again with a pillow for making him flush, even if that was difficult to do one-handed. The red haired mechanic knew that his face was likely red enough that Law already knew the answer to his own question. Kid took it back. The doctor was just a manipulative asshole who also happened to be a great kisser and a potential partner outside of bed. It just appeared as if Kid would have to live with the sarcasm for the rest of his life, but that didn't mean he would take it lying down.

Law, for his part, just smirked again as if pleased about making the red head embarrassed about his own feelings.

But as Kid tackled Law and stubbornly curled around and held on to the other man with his right arm, the red head figured that this really was the beginning of a different kind of relationship. It was certainly a far cry different than what the two of them had originally shared when Law first decided to intrude upon the mechanic's life.

Kid found himself interested in what would happen years in the future, and supposed that right now was the start of something different.

One thing would never change, however.

"I love you too, you idiot." Law curled closer, settling comfortably against Kid. "So don't try to kick me out of your apartment anymore."

Kid buried his face against the other man's neck to hide the pale skin of his cheeks heating again and let out an aggravated sigh. Law was a damn tease and while the red head could handle it, Kid would prefer it if Law refrained from putting words in his mouth.

After all, Kid would never admit, throughout the years to come, that he actually did care about Law more than he let on. Instead, he chose to be aggressive to anyone who came near the dark haired doctor or otherwise made an ass of himself whenever Law was around.

It happened to be the red head's way of saying 'I love you too' without so much as speaking the words because Kid wasn't into sappy shit like that.

Not. At. All.

It wasn't a surprise that that didn't remain a secret for long, and it had caused Kid to avert his eyes whenever Law would smirk at him after all the grandstanding, because the mechanic knew that the other man had figured it out. But it had another meaning that Law hadn't figured out, and Kid would try his best to keep it that way.

In addition to the protective, aggressive and loud airs Kid put on as a form of affection, the mechanic would also make a pointed effort to touch the dark haired doctor in any way, to let everyone around them know that Law was his. It was all the red head's way of letting the other man know without words that he wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon, despite all the shit they had put one another through in the beginning.

And damn Law for figuring that out as well in in the end, as one night had been quite interesting with the reveal of that supposedly hidden knowledge. Kid, red in the face, had locked himself into his bedroom, only to find that Law had found his way in hours later, and was fast asleep.

The red haired man had eventually caved in at the sight of the doctor snoozing peacefully against him and grumpily hugged Law to him, thinking the man was dead asleep, until the doctor opened his eyes and planted him on the lips with a searing and very, very satisfying kiss. The red head shoved Law off the bed with a glower as he turned over onto his left side.  Kid did nothing, however, to prevent Law from crawling right back into bed and snuggling up comfortably against his back.

Kid let out a soft huff even as he absently linked the fingers of his right hand with the tattooed one that had draped over his waist.

Law was still a smug fucker even after so many years had gone by, but so help him, Kid loved the doctor for it all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter was so hard to wrap up because I just wanted to keep it going. XD
> 
> I'm really rather pleased with how this fic turned out, and I had a lot of fun working on it. I hope everyone enjoyed my insanity of a revision, because the damn fic nearly doubled in length because of it. I tried to wrap everything up and have everything connect from chapter to chapter.
> 
> This is one of those fics that I kind of have to step back from and stare at, because damn, the fact that the story came out of my mind it bizarre to think about, especially when I read back over it and then wonder how the hell I managed it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading the fic!

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to point out right now that if, for some reason, there are still grammar mistakes/weirdly worded sentences in any of the chapters (that I may have missed), PLEASE let me know and I will fix them. 
> 
> Apart from that, enjoy reading the rest of the fic!


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